“I aggravated it pretty bad at the Open and only made things worse,” said the left-handed Bob, who received a cortisone shot prior to the US Open. “I knew if I wanted a chance to play the rest of this year, I had to shut it down now. I can’t even hit any balls.”

HOW SOON WE FORGET: Max Eisenbud of IMG, Maria Sharapova’s manager: “The way women’s tennis is being played, if you’re not at least a six-footer and can’t hit hard and deep and never miss, you have no chance.” Uh, ever heard of Justine Henin? She was 5-foot-5 and was No. 1 by a mile before retiring earlier this year. Maybe Google her.

“I wasn’t even going for No. 1 and it is an added bonus,” Serena said.

“I think I was behaving like a really spoilt girl today,” Safina told reporters.

After the match in an on-court interview, Djokovic lambasted Roddick for joking that the Serb was suffering from 16 injuries, drawing boos from the US Open crowd.

We are going to learn a lot about Novak Djokovic tonight. And I think Novak’s going to learn a lot about himself when under the lights, in primetime the Serb challenges American favorite Andy Roddick for a spot in the US Open semifinals.

Dinara Safina, the No. 7-ranked player in the world who can leap all the way to No. 1 with a US Open win, was the other quarterfinal winner Wednesday, topping Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 6-3. The 22-year-old Russian, who earlier in the week was literally crying to her coach on a practice court regarding her exhaustion following a long summer and the Beijing Olympics, has gathered herself in time for the semifinal and a date with Serena Williams.

Andy Roddick is suddenly looking all the wiser with the combination of skipping the Beijing Olympics and bring Patrick McEnroe on as a temporary coach. Gonzalez looked like he had the Beijing flu on Tuesday night, with barely enough energy to put up a fight.

Roger Federer hasn’t won four matches at a hardcourt tournament since the Australian Open. With three wins under his belt, Federer today tries for No. 4 against the heavy-hitting Igor Andreev.

“After the warm-up I just started to cry,” Safina said. “I said, ‘I cannot push anymore myself.’ He said, ‘We know that you’re not a machine. Just go out there and don’t thinking.’ He told me again, ‘Just please don’t show me any emotions, like these negative emotions. If you want, don’t show even positive. Just go on the court and do whatever you can this day.’…I could not stop from crying, yeah. So I guess he knows how to handle my emotions.”