Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic defeat the wind and respective foes

Reporting from New York — 

It was all about the wind Wednesday at the U.S. Open. Caroline Wozniacki had to make a mid-match hairstyle adjustment, going from ponytail to braid so she could see where the ball was sneaking off.

Novak Djokovic waved his racket in the air after a shot he missed because the wind made the ball disappear from his sight.

And yet when the day was done, it was the favorites who conquered the conditions and advanced.

Especially Roger Federer. The five-time U.S. Open champion and the draw’s second-seeded player blew away fifth-seeded Robin Soderling, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5.

And arriving at the men’s semifinals to meet Federer once again is third-seeded Djokovic. The 24-year-old from Serbia got to the finals in 2007 and the semis the last two years, losing to Federer each time.

Djokovic had no trouble in the quarterfinals with 17th-seeded Gael Monfils, a gifted shot maker who chose to ignore the contentious conditions with winds that gusted to 36 mph at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

While Monfils was trying never-before-seen twisting, leaping, around-his-leg shots that went nowhere they were supposed to go, Djokovic was strategically timing his advances to the net, keeping his serve under control while winning comfortably, 7-6 (2), 6-1, 6-2.

The second women’s semifinal was set when seventh-seeded Vera Zvonareva, a Wimbledon finalist this year but a first-timer in the U.S. Open quarterfinals, beat 31st-seeded Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, 6-3, 7-5.

Zvonareva will meet Wozniacki, who was a surprise finalist last year. Wozniacki, 20, beat unseeded Dominika Cibulkova, 6-2, 7-5. The wind was so bad that Wozniacki compared the experience to “playing in a hurricane.”

“The weather was definitely not for the good tennis out there,” Zvonareva said. “But no matter what, the match had to be played. The most important thing was to find the right balance between being patient and being aggressive. I think I did it well.”

Djokovic agreed. “Obviously,” he said, “the conditions were maybe as difficult as we saw so far in the tournament. We didn’t have wind in only one direction. We had it all over. As you probably saw, the serve wasn’t going over 110, 105 miles per hour, both players. It was more trying to use the wind and use the speed.”

Thursday’s featured matches

At 8 a.m. PDT at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Vania King, of Long Beach, and Yaroslava Shvedova, the defending Wimbledon doubles champions, against Cara Black and Anastasia Rodionova in a women’s semifinal; not before 11 a.m., 25th-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka vs. 12th-seeded Mikhail Youzhny. Beginning at 4 p.m., Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova vs. Pat Cash and Mats Wilander, exhibition; not before 5 p.m., first-seeded Rafael Nadal vs. eighth-seeded Fernando Verdasco.

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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