Federer defeats Tsonga to cap chaotic day at US Open

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Roger Federer got another crack at Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a Grand Slam quarterfinal — and beat him. Now Novak Djokovic gets another shot at Federer.

Federer reached his eighth consecutive semifinal at the U.S. Open by beating Tsonga 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 on Thursday night in a match delayed about 11/2 hours by rain in the first set.

At Wimbledon in late June, Tsonga upset 16-time major champion Federer in the quarterfinals after dropping the first two sets. Until that loss, Federer was 178-0 when taking a two-set lead in a Grand Slam match.

Now Federer will face the top-seeded Djokovic at the U.S. Open for the fifth straight year; Federer is 3-1 so far. They met in the semifinals at this year’s French Open, where Federer ended Djokovic’s 43-match winning streak.

Earlier, rain finally gave way to sun, but chaos still managed to reign. A crack near a baseline in the tournament’s second-biggest stadium let water seep through, halting Andy Roddick’s already twice-delayed match against David Ferrer until they were moved to a court often used by juniors.

And because of showers earlier this week, the U.S. Tennis Association extended the tournament, delaying the men’s final by 24 hours to Monday at 4 p.m. . The women’s final was shifted from Saturday night to Sunday at 4 p.m.

Roddick, defending champion Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and John Isner all won to reach the quarterfinals. On the other side of the men’s draw, Djokovic got to the semifinals.

Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Sam Stosur and Angelique Kerber filled the four spots in the women’s semifinals.