Djokovic Rips Roddick, Americans Out of US Open

Novak Djokovic, who had become the butt of Andy Roddick’s jokes regarding his injuries, manhandled the top seeded American last night and advanced to the US Open semifinals after winning 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5).  Roddick, who is known for his powerful serve, was broken three times in his first four service games and was simply domainated for the first two sets.  Though he was able to come back and win the third, he experienced a meltdown at the end of the fourth set, which he eventually dropped in a tiebreaker.

Serving at 5-4 in the fourth set and up 30-15, Roddick proceeeded to double fault twice in a row and then watched Djokovic throw a lob over his head to break serve, eventually leading to the tiebreaker.

However, the story of the night was Djokovic’s post-match interview on the court with USA Network’s Michael Barkann, which is also played over the PA system at Arthur Ashe Stadium.  Commenting on Roddick’s joke that he had the bird flu, SARS or other various injuries, Djokovic said “you know, Andy was saying I have 16 injuries in the last match.  Obviously, I don’t — right?”  The clearly pro-Roddick crowd began to boo the Serb, who is currently ranked #3 in the world, which only led him further in his comments.

“They’re already against me because they think I’m faking everything, so it’s all right,” Djokovic said, to even higher boos.  “That’s not nice, anyhow, to say in front of the crowd that I have 16 injuries and that I’m faking it.”

He did later apologize saying “unfortunately, Andy made a statement.  I don’t think it was intentional. I don’t blame it on him. I did react on the court. Maybe I reacted bad in that moment. I apologize. It was impulsive.  I made maybe a mistake by saying that in front of 20,000 people in his city and his favorite tournament.”

Djokovic, who won the Australian Open in January, will play #2 ranked Roger Federer for a chance at the US Open Final.  If Djokovic were to win that match, as well as the final against either Rafael Nadal or Andy Murray, who play in the other semifinal match, he will move ahead of Federer in the rankings.