Fourth-seeded David Ferrer outlasts No. 8 Janko Tipsarevic

NEW YORK -- David Ferrer made it into his second U.S. Open semifinal Thursday, bringing eighth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic to his knees more than once in a 6-3, 6-7 (5), 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) quarterfinal victory in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Ferrer, from Spain, will play the winner of the last men’s quarterfinal between defending champion and second-seeded Novak Djokovic and seventh-seeded 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro. That match was scheduled to be played later Thursday. Third-seeded Andy Murray and sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych have already earned their Saturday semifinal places.

The final set of Ferrer’s win took 1 hour 31 minutes and the match lasted 4 hours 31 minutes. On one point during the fifth set Tipsarevic’s feet became tangled as he tried to calculate the angles on one of Ferrer’s deep groundstrokes. The 28-year-old Serb grabbed his upper leg and howled, but a trainer wrapped the leg in lots of tape and Tipsarevic just came back out running.

In the end, though, Tipsarevic, who had taken some heat this week for proclaiming on social media outlets that women players didn’t deserve the equal prize money they earn at the U.S. Open because men play best-of-five-set matches while women play best of three, couldn’t run down one last huge stroke from Ferrer.

Ferrer played zero serve-and-volley points but 203 from the baseline. The Spaniard also served 15 aces.

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