30. 04. 2011. ·
Novak Djokovic (Photo: Srdjan Stevanovic)
Australian Open champion and Serbia Open top seed Novak Djokovic is the first ATP World Tour 250 event finalist.
The all-Serbian semi-final was on schedule on Saturday evening, but no.7 seed Janko Tipsarevic was forced to withdraw from the tournament with a right leg injury. The world no.36 will skip Madrid Masters next week.
“Bad news. Janko had to pull out from tonight’s semi final match,because of muscle injury. I sincerely hope he will manage to recover for the rest of the clay court season. Final is tomorrow at 16h. I will try to get the tittle back where it belongs,and that is SERBIA,” Novak wrote on his Facebook page.
The doubles semi-final match between no.3 seeds Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram of Israel, and a Czecho-Slovakian duo Frantisek Cermak/Fillip Polasek will be played in the evening programme instead.
Top seeds Nenad Zimonjic and Marcel Granollers take on fourth-seeded Austrian combination Oliver Marach/Alexander Peya in the second match of the day.
Djokovic will face world no.37 Feliciano Lopez on Sunday at 4pm.
The Spaniard won the battle of the 29-year-olds in the first match on Center court. He defeated world no.80 Italian Filippo Volandri in straight sets 7-6(3), 6-2 in 1 hour and 35 minutes.
Djokovic and Lopez will meet for the fourth time. Nole has won all three previous matches, the last was in the second round of Dubai 2011.
Nole will have the chance to triumph at his hometown tournament for the second time. He lifted the trophy at the inaugural Serbia Open 2009.
