25. 01. 2011. ·
Nole will play in the semi-finals of Australian Open for the second time in his career!
Third-seeded Novak Djokovic continued his quest for a second Grand Slam title with a 6-1, 7-6(5), 6-1 victory over sixth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych in 2 hours and 32 minutes on Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday.
The Serbian number one started confidently as he held to love in the opening game. Berdych saved two break points in the fourth game, first when Novak missed a forehand, and second with a great first serve. But he could do nothing about the third as Djokovic hit a forehand passing shot winner across court. The Czech then managed to push Nole to deuce but the 23-year-old went on to hold and consolidated the break. He made a break once again in the sixth game to increase his lead to 5-1 and clinched the set 6-1 in 36 minutes.
Berdych was forced to save two break points in the opening game of the second set. Novak hit into the net on the first and the Czech fired an ace before going on to hold with a forehand winner after a series of fantastic ground-strokes. Djokovic was broken in the fourth game, but as soon as he sorted out his contact lens problem he regained his momentum. He produced a brilliant forehand lob down the line for a winner to earn himself a break back point in the seventh game and converted it with a cross court passing shot. The set was decided in a tie-breaker, Nole won it 7-5 in 78 minutes.
The world no.3 broke his opponent’s service twice in the third set, in the fourth and sixth games, and closed it 6-1 in 38 minutes.
Djokovic served 10 aces to Berdych’s 5, and made 1 double fault to Berdych’s 5.
The Serb hit 34 winners, 5 more than Berdych, and had 21 unforced errors to his opponent’s 32.
Nole converted 5 of his 10 break points, while the Czech capitalised on 1 of his 2 break point chances.
“I played really, really well first and third set. Second set as well. I was on and off. I made some unforced errors, and I was a bit defensive and gave him opportunity to come back to the match”, said Djokovic in his postmatch interview.
“Generally I have to be very happy with the performance. Maybe the turning point was the tiebreak in the second set where it went my way. If it’s one set all, it’s a totally different match. Two sets up, it’s a big advantage and I was starting to go for shots more in the third. Today has been a real test, because he’s no.6 of the world and a very difficult opponent. I’ve played one of my best tennis in the last couple months.”
Novak will next meet four time defending champion and no.2 seed Roger Federer. The Swiss beat his countryman Stanislas Wawrinka 6-1, 6-3, 6-3.
“I have nothing to lose playing Federer, who’s the title defender here. We all know everything about him. I have to believe in myself in order to win that match”, said Nole about the upcoming challenge.
“He’s very aggressive player, maybe the most aggressive there is on the tour. You have to be patient. Again, put some varieties and get him out of comfort zone. I’ve played so many times against him. He knows my game really well, as I know his. We played very close matches, last five matches except the one in London. Semifinals of a Grand Slam is very unpredictable what’s going to happen.”
Federer leads their head-to-heads 13-6. In their last encounter, at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London, Roger won 6-1, 6-4.
The match is scheduled on Thursday at 9.30 am CET.
En route to his first Grand Slam title, at Australian Open 2008, Nole defeated Federer in semi-finals 7-5, 6-3, 7-6(5).
Let the history repeat itself…
Good luck Nole!
