Tuesday September 11, 2012
No excuses from Ferrer as Agassi is inducted into Court of Champions
DAVID Ferrer thrived in the whipping winds that blew through Flushing Meadows on Saturday but the Spaniard could not find his top form and fell to Novak Djokovic when their weather-hit semi-final was completed on Sunday.
“Every match is different. Every day is different,” said the 30-year-old Ferrer, who lost 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 and was still looking to reach his first Grand Slam final after a fourth trip to the semi-finals.
Ferrer led 5-2 on Saturday when organisers suspended play at the National Tennis Centre due to an approaching storm.
After holding serve to claim the first set 6-2 once the match resumed under Sunday’s sunshine, Ferrer was overpowered by the reigning champion Djokovic, who advanced to the final against third-seeded Olympic champion Andy Murray.
“Today, Djokovic, he plays better than me,” said Ferrer, who lost the last three sets in less than two hours against a barrage of winners from the 25-year-old Serb.
Ferrer now will return to Spain for this weekend’s Davis Cup semi-final against the United States.
At the US Open, he provided one of the most dramatic victories of the tournament by winning a fifth-set tiebreaker against Serbian Janko Tipsarevic in the quarter-finals.
Despite the disappointment of coming so close once again to reach a Grand Slam final, Ferrer remained upbeat and positive.
Meanwhile, Andre Agassi says that while he misses his tennis career only in some ways, he undoubtedly misses the US Open.
The two-time champion was inducted on Sunday into the US Open Court of Champions at the Stadium before the women’s final.
The 42-year-old Agassi competed in the tournament a men’s Open-era record 21 consecutive times, from 1986 through 2006. It was the only Grand Slam event he never skipped, and he tells the New York fans, “The reason, quite honestly, is you.”
During the ceremony, the recently retired Andy Roddick paid tribute to the lessons Agassi taught him. — Agencies
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