Djokovic dishes on Fish in straight-set smackdown

It was a little after 2 p.m. inside Arthur Ashe Stadium Monday when a Serbian fan arrived at his seat in Section 205 and watched No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic dice a drop shot winner.

"We're having Fish for lunch today," the fan said. "Well done."

Indeed, American Mardy Fish was Djokovic's dish in their fourth-round encounter, helpless to hurt the Serb in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 loss that lasted less than two hours.

The No. 19 seed entered a winner in 25 of 29 matches since June 8, but never looked completely comfortable in Flushing, where he was stretched to five sets in first-week matches with No. 82 Jan Hajek and No. 68 Arnaud Clement.

Djokovic, on the other hand, has gotten better with each passing round. Against Fish, he converted six of eight break points and conceded only three aces.

"It's very encouraging at this stage of the tournament that I'm raising my game and feeling more comfortable on the court," said Djokovic. "I was using my serve in important moments extremely well, opening the court and not giving him enough chances to come to the net and be aggressive."

Fish's serves and volleys -- which helped him reach four finals this summer -- were not a factor against Djokovic.

He was broken for 0-2 by hanging five feet behind the baseline. After winning Djokovic's subsequent service game, Fish changed his tactics and rushed the net three times at 1-2, only to watch Djokovic produce three good passes and take a 3-1 lead.

"I felt so many times today -- even off my first serves -- I was sort of fighting to neutralize the point," said Fish. "I was on my back foot quite a bit, even when I was with the wind."

Serving at 3-6, 2-2, Fish was broken for a third time when he didn't move his feet up to a short ball and framed a forehand long.

But following a trio of sloppy shots from the Serb, Fish found himself with three chances to break back. He failed to convert any of them as Djokovic took the offensive in each rally, hitting two forehand winners and drawing a backhand error from the American.

Djokovic held for 4-2 and never looked back. Fish failed to earn a break point in the Serb's final five service games of the match.

"He puts a lot of pressure on you with his movement," said Fish. "He's probably one of the top three fastest guys on tour.

"It's very hard to wrong-foot him. It's very hard to hit a winner from the baseline. It's very hard to get him on defense. You can't really rely on much as far as a game plan against him."

Djokovic, the 2007 US Open runner-up, advances to the quarterfinals to play No. 17 Gael Monfils, whom he has defeated in all four of their career meetings.