Novak Djokovic advanced to the Men's Final after defeating David Ferrer !!!

As he has charged toward the top of the rankings this year, Novak Djokovic has said he wants to turn the twosome that rules men’s tennis — Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal — into a threesome that includes him. By winning his United States Open semifinal yesterday, Djokovic finally has a chance to make that happen.

Djokovic reached his first Grand Slam final with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 victory over David Ferrer of Spain. He advanced to today’s final, in which he will face the winner of the semifinal between the top-seeded Federer and No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko.

“It’s going to be an amazing experience in my first Grand Slam final, with a packed house,” Djokovic said. “It’s amazing for me, and it’s amazing for my country. I am so proud.”

For Djokovic, a 20-year-old Serb who has rocketed to No. 3 in the world this year, this was another huge step. He becomes the first Serbian man in a Grand Slam final. He has reached the semifinals in the past two Grand Slam events, the French Open and Wimbledon, losing to Rafael Nadal both times. But yesterday, he faced the player who knocked out Nadal in the fourth round.

The things that Ferrer did so well to frustrate Nadal did not work against Djokovic, who used a combination of a big serve and flat, punishing ground strokes to keep Ferrer from using his speed to control the match. Against Nadal, Ferrer ran furiously to keep his opponent’s best shots in play, then became aggressive when he could get a leg up in a point. But even the quick Ferrer could not reach many of Djokovic’s best shots.

They played on the hottest afternoon of the tournament, and it seemed to take more of a toll on Djokovic, who complained to trainers of a headache and began wearing a cap midway through the match. The temperature reached the high 80s, but it was far hotter on the court.

Djokovic started slowly in the first set, badly losing his first service game and spraying errors everywhere to dig himself a 4-1 hole before he got into the flow of the match. From there, though, Djokovic began to impose his game on Ferrer.

Djokovic stormed through the rest of that set, winning three straight games at love while painting the lines with forceful ground strokes that even the speedy Ferrer could not track down. To close out the set, Djokovic won 20 of the final 23 points.

He started the second by breaking Ferrer and began frustrating him with a series of audacious drop shots. Ferrer reached a few of them, only to have Djokovic beat him with the next shot. When he put one return into the net, Ferrer threw his racket in frustration. He also kicked the match clock and stopped it at 50 minutes until workers could fix it.

Ferrer got some life in the second set, breaking Djokovic and winning a service game at love to send him on a fist-pumping surge while Djokovic seemed to be succumbing to the heat. But Djokovic broke back in the next game and finished the set energetically.