NEW YORK — Second-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland advanced to his 38th Grand Slam semifinal with a win in straight sets over 12th-seeded Richard Gasquet of France on Wednesday evening in a U.S. Open men’s quarterfinal in New York.
Federer dispatched Gasquet 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 and never faced a break point in the match while breezing to the win.
“I’ve worked on my game moving forward,” Federer explained. “I’m volleying better than I have in the last 10 years. Because my serve is working quite well, you put those two things together and I’m moving in on my return, too.”
He’ll face countryman Stan Wawrinka in a semifinal on Friday.
Wawrinka, the fifth seed, rolled to a 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 victory over South African Kevin Anderson, the No. 15 seed. Anderson had ousted third-seeded Andy Murray to reach his first career Grand Slam quarterfinal, but he had 42 unforced errors against Wawrinka.
The other men’s semifinal later this week will feature top-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia and ninth-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia, the defending champion.
“It’s special,” Wawrinka said of facing Federer, who has been as much a mentor to him as a rival. “He plays so good this summer. He’s trying to invent a new shot.”
In the women’s bracket, the Italian flag was waving proudly over the U.S. Open on Wednesday after Flavia Pennetta toppled fifth seed Petra Kvitova to join compatriot Roberta Vinci in the Flushing Meadows semifinals.
Defying the odds and rankings, 30-somethings Pennetta and Vinci put their names in the record books by becoming the first two Italian women in the Open Era to advance to the last four of a grand slam.
“I think this is really important for our country. We did a lot of good things in the last 10 years. We have me, Roberta [Vinci], Francesca [Schiavone], Sara [Errani], now Camila [Giorgi] is coming also,” Pennetta told reporters.
“So I think it’s really good for Italian tennis,” she said.
“I’m very proud. Of course yesterday when I saw Roberta in the locker, I mean, I hug her and I say — I mean, she was amazing,” she said.
The dream of an All-Italian U.S. Open final, however, will require some special magic particularly from the 32-year-old Vinci, who has the daunting task of facing world No. 1 and three-times defending U.S. Open champion Serena Williams.
The 33-year old Pennetta will take on second-seeded Romanian Simona Halep, who advanced with a three-set win over twice U.S. Open finalist Victoria Azarenka.
Pennetta has always been at home on the New York hardcourts having now advanced to the quarter-finals or beyond in six of her last seven visits to the National Tennis Center.
Aside from her U.S. Open resume there was little to hint of another semifinal appearance after what was an unimpressive run up to the year’s final grand slam, which included second-round exits in Toronto and Cincinnati and a first-round loss in New Haven.
“Before the tournament I never think to be so far in the tournament, so it’s something special,” Pennetta said. “It’s something amazing for me in this moment.
“I didn’t play really well in the last week and the feeling was not that good,” she said.
“I just come here and try to practice, try to find the good feeling with the ball, with the atmosphere here, and everything it seems working,” she added.
For just the third time in the Open Era, three of the four semifinalists are age 30 years or older.
“I mean, of course we are a little bit old for the age of tennis right now,” said Pennetta. “But we are here. We still fight.
“We still enjoy what we did. I think this is important,” she said.
Blake mistakenly roughed up by NYPD
Former tennis player James Blake was attacked and detained Wednesday by an undercover New York police officer who mistook him for a thief, according to the New York Daily News.
As Blake waited for a car to take him to the U.S. Open, the unnamed plain-clothes officer ran toward the former tennis star and slammed him to the pavement, then cuffed him.
Four other undercover cops showed up as well, according to the Daily News, and didn’t let Blake go until they were told the man they had in custody was James Blake, not the suspect in an identity theft ring they were seeking.
After 15 minutes in custody, Blake was released, the Daily News reported. He said the arresting officer did not apologize, and Blake is seeking an apology from the NYPD, which said it is investigating the incident.
Blake, who is black, was asked whether he thought race motivated the arresting officers, who were white.
“I don’t know if it’s as simple as that. To me it’s as simple as unnecessary police force, no matter what my race is,” he told the Daily News. “In my mind, there’s probably a race factor involved; but, no matter what, there’s no reason for anybody to do that to anybody.
“You’d think they could say, ‘Hey, we want to talk to you. We are looking into something.’ I was just standing there. I wasn’t running. … It’s blatantly unnecessary. You would think at some point they would get the memo that this isn’t OK, but it seems that there’s no stopping it.”