7:28pm BST
A battle of generations
7:20pm BST
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7:10pm BST
Men’s semi-final
Hello and welcome to coverage of the first men’s semi-final between Novak Djokovic and Ben Shelton.
Djokovic is the clear favorite to reach the 10th final in New York after winning titles in 2011, 2015 and 2018 and finishing second six times.
Shelton has one of the best serves in the tournament, with 76 aces and a top speed of 150 mph. But against Djokovic he is playing the best returner in the history of the sport, who has won 44 percent of his opponent’s service games.
“Every time you play someone for the first time, and someone who has been in this situation so many times and emerged victorious so many times, that’s in the back of your mind. You just know how strong the man is and how mentally strong, how physically tough. So that’s definitely something I need to plan for,” said Shelton, who had never traveled outside the United States until early this year and reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open in January.
“I also think it is an advantage that with my playing style I am playing against someone who has never played against me before. I think I can bring up some things that you might not see in your normal match.
“So I’m definitely going to try to bring some things to the table on Friday that are different and hopefully disruptive.”
Shelton will certainly get the majority of support as the home favorite, but Djokovic is ready for the partisan crowd.
“Sometimes you respond, but most of the time you don’t. I speak for myself,” Djokovic said. “Obviously there’s a percentage of the time you don’t respond. People speak, they move. You have to be ready for that, especially during the US Open, especially during the night sessions.
‘It’s just part of it. It’s part of the sport, and I don’t mind it, you know, most of the time I don’t mind it, but you know, in those important moments when you suddenly experience a lot of stress and are confronted with a breaking point and then suddenly everything irritates you and leads you wonder, so then you respond.
“But again that is the heat of the moment and playing at the highest level. You know, audience — I’m actually happy that the audience wants to be there, because it means that the competition is interesting, that they want to be part of it. That they have fun. At the end of the day they pay for tickets to come and see you play, so we try to put on a show and perform for them so they go home satisfied that they’ve been here and enjoyed their day.
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