It was late Tuesday. The postmatch news conference was over, and Novak Djokovic was running toward the locker room at Arthur Ashe Stadium with energy still to burn after another unexpectedly short shift at the United States Open.
It has been that sort of Grand Slam tournament: a truly strange trip to the semifinals in which the opposition vanished like mirages when they came close enough to play. They retired midmatch with injuries in the cases of Mikhail Youzhny, in the third round, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in the quarterfinals. Or they were unable to play at all, in the case of Jiri Vesely in the second round.