24. 02. 2011. ยท
Second seed at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Novak Djokovic ,overcame a slow start to beat world no. 38 German Florian Mayer 7-5, 6-1 and reach semi-finals in 75 minutes.
Novak was broken already in the opening game of the match. He saved one break point, but Mayer used his second chance and then held to consolidate the break. Nole found his rhythm and broke back in the tenth game to equalise the result to 5-5. The defending champion also won the next two games and took the first set 7-5 in 45 minutes.
The 23-year-old Serb grabbed the double break and closed the second set and match 6-1.
“It was a very slow start,” admitted Novak. “Quite different condition from last night’s match. The ball was going faster today, and he took it to me from the start. Already first game he was on the net, twice, three times. I was not moving my legs well. I was making lots of unforced errors. But when I needed to play well and needed to keep the ball in the court, I did. The match turned around after the break at 5-4.”
Djokovic will play against no.3 seed Tomas Berdych for a place in his third Dubai finals. The Czech beat German Philipp Petzschner 7-5, 6-4.
“It will be a tough one,” said Nole. “He’s been playing really well in the last year and a half. He’s a quite consistent player right now. We played in Australia. He has a very powerful serve, very fast baseline strokes, very flat, so I guess I need to be patient and wait for my chances.”
The match is scheduled on Friday.
Djokovic and Berdych have met six times, Nole leads 5-1. Their last match was in AO quarter-finals, the Australian Open champion won it 6-1, 7-6(5), 6-1.
