Novak Djokovic said he was not at peak freshness after his fourth-round victory over Taylor Fritz at the US Open, but he made clear he will not concede when he meets Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-final. The 24-time Grand Slam champion has battled a string of niggles at the hard-court major, from blisters to a back issue and shoulder trouble, yet progressed to the last four by extending his perfect record against Fritz to 11-0.

Djokovic won 6-3, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, dropping a set to the American and admitting he would have preferred to finish in three. Aged 38, he accepted Fritz was the better player through portions of the second and third sets and was relieved to come through.

“It was an incredibly close match. It was really anybody’s match. I thought I was lucky to really save crucial breakpoints in the second set,” the four-time US Open champion said. “For most of the second and third set he was the better player. In these kinds of matches, few points decide the winner. It was fortunately coming on my side, particularly at the end of the fourth set.”

Djokovic will return on Friday to face Alcaraz in their ninth meeting. The veteran leads their head-to-head 5-3, with his two most recent wins coming at this year’s Australian Open and in the gold medal match at the 2024 Paris Olympics last August.

He welcomed the break in the schedule ahead of the semi-final and outlined his recovery plan. “Good thing about the schedule is now that I have two days without a match, so that helps a lot,” he said. “So I don’t feel very fresh at the moment. But hopefully in two days will be different.

The seventh seed added: “It’s not going to get easier, I tell you that. But look, as I said, I’m going to try to take one day at a time, really take care of my body, try to relax and recover.

“The next couple of days is really key for me to really get my body in shape and ready to battle five sets if it’s needed. So I just would really love that, would love to be fit enough to play and to play, you know, potentially five sets with Carlos. And I know that my best tennis is going to be required, but I rise to the occasion.

“Normally, I like to play the big matches on a big stage. It’s just that I’m not really sure how the body is going to feel in the next few days. But, you know, I’m going to do my very best with my team to be fit for that. There’s going to be a lot of running involved, that’s for sure. I mean, there’s not going to be short points.”

With Carlos Alcaraz and defending champion Jannik Sinner seen as the pre-tournament favourites, Djokovic made his intentions clear about upsetting expectations. “We don’t need to spend words about two of them. You know, we know that they’re two best players in the world,” he said. “Everybody’s probably expecting and anticipating the finals between two of them. I’m going to try to, you know, mess up the plans of most of the people and let’s see, you know, Sinner still has to win a couple of matches to get to the finals, but they are playing definitely the best tennis of any player here.

“They’ve been the dominant force since the beginning of the tournament, but, you know, I definitely am not going with the white flag on the court. I don’t think anybody does, really, when they play them, but particularly not me.

“I put myself in another semi-final of a Grand Slam this year. I’ve been very consistent, mostly consistent on the Slams this season, and that’s what I said at the beginning of the year, where I would like to perform my best tennis and make the best results.”

Emma Raducanu remains a sought-after ambassador for major brands even as she works to re-establish herself on tour. After the breakthrough at the US Open in 2021, Dior, Porsche, Tiffany, British Airways, Vodafone and Evian were among the marquee names linked to her. The on-court results that followed did not match that early surge.

Injuries and a dip in form saw Raducanu slide down the WTA Rankings and it took her almost four years to find her feet on the senior tour after her initial breakthrough. Her current trajectory shows signs of recovery and a more measured view of what is realistic on court.

The commercial interest has not waned. She remains attached to some of the partners who added her as an ambassador in 2021 and continues to attract new clients. Her 2.9m followers on Instagram make her a big tennis influencer and she used her time in New York around the US Open to film an advert for her latest sponsor, sustainable personal care brand Wild. The brand unveiled Raducanu as their new brand ambassador with a glossy new advert, which was filmed at West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York.

Raducanu has acknowledged that the early phase of her career involved too much off-court activity and says she has altered her approach. “Especially straight after I did really well, for the next few years it was very much like there was so much communication about things off the court,” said Raducanu.

“And I would always, always give my 100 per cent on the court. I was always working really hard, but I just think that I wasn’t prepared as well for the other things that inevitably do take some energy out of you.

“I think now I’m a lot more structured. I’ll be like: ‘OK, I have this time where one hour we will talk about business. And now I’m going to go train for the rest of the week’.

“Also I think I’ve learned how to say no a bit more. Initially, I felt really bad for letting people down. I’d always want to do extra for whatever partner or magazine or whatever I’m shooting for.”

On-court earnings currently stand at a little over $5.5m, while sponsorship income across the last four years is believed to exceed that figure. Raducanu suffered a disappointing exit at the US Open when she was well beaten by Elena Rybakina in the third round, but her commercial profile and public appeal remain strong.

Coco Gauff left the 2025 US Open with mixed emotions: bruised after a loss to Naomi Osaka but upbeat about the work she has started on her serve. Observers had noted a sombre demeanour during parts of her run in New York, yet Gauff framed the week as part of a broader process.

The changes began after a difficult 2024 North American hard-court swing. She parted ways with Brad Gilbert and joined Matt Daly last September, a partnership that produced immediate results: she won the China Open and finished the year with the season-ending WTA Finals trophy. Her form carried into 2025 with a second major at Roland Garros and runner-up finishes at the Madrid Open and Italian Open, but she acknowledged a persistent weakness in her serve.

When Gavin MacMillan became available after the Cincinnati Open, Gauff made another significant switch. She and MacMillan focused on biomechanics and decided to change her entire service motion. That overhaul left the build-up to the US Open difficult; she described shoulder pain after practice but accepted the short-term discomfort.

A testing three-set win over Ajla Tomljanovic opened her campaign. There were tears during and after a two-set victory over Donna Vekic, and she dropped only four games against Magdalena Fręch in the third round before the defeat to Osaka. After the Fręch match she admitted she “broke down.”

She detailed the emotional swing: “I think that trying to be more positive after the match, I was really disappointed,” she admitted. “Kind of broke down to my team and then hearing their perspectives and everything, it definitely is a lot of positive things.

“If I think if I kept the way I was going in Cincinnati to here, I would have been out the first round. And so I think that where my serve started from the start of the tournament to today was a big improvement. And I feel like now I just have to get everything to work together. But, yeah, I knew going in it was going to be a tough tournament for me.”

Statistically there are signs of progress: she served 320 double faults before the US Open, added 23 in her first three matches in New York and five more against Osaka. “My goal going into the tournament this year was not to lose the same way that I lost last year. And I don’t remember how many doubles I hit in my match against Emma, but it was definitely in the double digits, so I didn’t do that today,” she said.

At 21 she already owns 10 WTA Tour singles titles, including two Grand Slams, a WTA Finals trophy and two WTA 1000 titles, and she has peaked at No 2. With older rivals such as Aryna Sabalenka, 27, and Iga Swiatek, 24, she sees room to grow: “So I think for me, it just gets me excited to realise if I have, like, four more years of just working as hard as I am right now and actually doing the right things, like where my game could be.”