Fish ousted; Serena wins

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Mardy Fish found himself dealing with all sorts of problems as he tried to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals for the second time.

There was the brief flap with his opponent, 11th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and the chair umpire over some distracting cheering in the stands.

There were the aching right hip and hamstring that left Fish flat on his back, getting massaged by a trainer before the fifth set.

There was the pressure of knowing that he was, for the first time, the highest-ranked American at the country’s Grand Slam tennis tournament.

There was the whipping wind that sent shots this way and that.

And then, of course, there was Tsonga, the big-hitting, athletic Frenchman, who feels more confident than ever — and it shows.

The eighth-seeded Fish wasted a lead and lost the fourth-round match at Flushing Meadows 6-4, 6-7 (5), 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 on Monday night, bringing what he saw as a premature end to what he hoped would be a run to a major semifinal.

There could be a Grand Slam rematch in New York, because Tsonga next plays either 16-time major champion Federer or Juan Monaco, who played late Monday.

Djokovic, meanwhile, extended his 2011 record to 61-2 by beating No. 22 Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 7-6 (14), 6-4, 6-2. Their 16-14 tiebreaker in the first set lasted nearly a half-hour all on its own, with Djokovic saving four set points and finally converting his sixth when Dolgopolov pushed a forehand long to close a 13-stroke exchange.

Pretty much everyone who played Monday complained about the wind, which gusted at up to 20 mph and kept changing directions, making even serve tosses difficult.

Serena Williams handled those conditions much better than former No. 1 and 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic and beat her 6-3, 6-4 to return to a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the first time in 14 months. She missed about 11 of those with a series of health scares but looks really good so far at the U.S. Open.

No. 10 Andrea Petkovic of Germany reached her third major quarterfinal of the year with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over unseeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain. Next for Petkovic will be No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, who trailed by a set and 4-1 in the second before coming back to beat 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-1.