There was never a doubt in the first men's semifinal as to the winner of the match. Top seed Novak Djokovic took advantage of an off day from Marin Cilic to secure a straight sets rout as he advances to Sunday's US Open Final. Djokovic moves to 14-0 all-time against Cilic.

Djokovic Dashes Out To A Perfect Start

The match opened with Djokovic on serve and it was a simple hold for the top seed to go up 1-0. The defending champ started with trouble getting his first serves in. That allowed Djokovic to jump into his return game and put immediate pressure on Cilic. Djokovic was working some fantastic ground strokes and had triple break point right out of the gate. On his third chance, Djokovic worked Cilic into a long rally and scored the break when Cilic sent a double-handed backhand long. Djokovic continued to work on the Croat's backhand as he held serve for a 3-0 lead, winning 12 of the first 16 points in the match.

The lack of consistently landing first serves was again large as Cilic was landing under 30 percent of his first serves. That led to a double fault that handed Djokovic a bonus break to 4-0. There would be no reprieve as Djokovic held and broke Cilic again to score a bagel of the defending champ 6-0 in the opener. The stat line was a mess for Cilic. He only got in 41 percent of his first serves. That left Djokovic to win 11 of 13 points off Cilic's second serve. Cilic threw in eight unforced errors on top of his poor serving.

The Serb Continues To Smash The Defending Champion

Djokovic had no problems holding to open the set. Cilic again though was having his issues getting his first serve in on his serve. He won six of six points on his first serve in the second game, but just one of six on his second serve. Cilic had to fight off two break points to pull even 1-1. The problems continued to mount for the defending champion as he continued to rack up the unforced errors and just could not get his first serve in consistently.

The pressure would get to Cilic  in the rallies as he sent a forehand long to help Djokovic  secure the first break of the set to go up 3-1. The story would remain the same for the set as Djokovic broke Cilic once more and closed out the set 6-1. Cilic won just three of 13 second serve points in the set and littered the court with 16 unforced errors. Djokovic was a rock, winning 16 of 19 points on serve with eight winners and just three unforced errors.

Djokovic Sweeps

There was simply no room for error for Cilic to start the third and all he could do was err in favor of Djokovic. The first serve struggles continued and Djokovic jumped on an early break opportunity to secure a quick 1-0 lead. He would consolidate to begin another set with a lead of 2-0. Djokovic would get a little loose with some errors, including a double fault in the fourth game as Cilic broke back to even the match at 2-2. New life? Not for long. Cilic continued his service struggles and made a few more errors as Djokovic broke right back.

It was the seventh break of service for the top seed of Cilic's serve. The top seed would punish Cilic from there on out as he held, broke Cilic and 8th time and then closed out the match with a 6-2 win in the third set. Cilic totaled just seven winners with 27 unforced errors. He won just seven points out of 31 on second serve. In the post-match interview, Djokovic said he felt Cilic's injured ankle did play a part in the outcome of the match. The top seed applauded Cilic for completing the match.

Pursuit Of Title Number Two

With the win, Novak Djokovic advances to his sixth US Open final. The big story has been his lack of results in winning at the final stage though with just one US Open title to his credit. He will face the winner of the Roger Federer-Stan Wawrinka semifinal. Djokovic is 3-2 against Federer this year with a Slam win over him at Wimbledon. The top seed is 2-1 against Wawrinka. They split two Slam meetings. Djokovic beat him at the Australian Open in the semifinals in five sets. Wawrinka stunned Djokovic in the French Open final in straight sets.

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About the author
Chris Spiech
Tennis fan who still is not sure exactly how he became a tennis fan.