15. 05. 2009. ·
ATP World Tour no.4 Novak Djokovic defeated world no.54 Croat Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets 6-4,6-4 in 1 hour and 44 minutes to advance to the semifinals at the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open on Friday.
Ljubicic held to 15 to open the match. It was much tougher opening game for Djokovic as he was pushed to deuce by the Croat. Nole had a solid first serve and then the forehand winner to level the score. The 30-year-old missed a forehand to hand Djokovic break point in the fifth game, but saved it with an ace and held to stay in front. Novak finally managed to break his opponent’s service in the ninth game and closed the set 6-4.
Ljubicic faced two break points in the seventh game of the second set, but saved them both. Nole earned the third and came up with a sliced backhand drop shot that bounced twice before the Croat could get to it after a long rally. Djokovic got the break to go 4-3 up. He was confident serving for the match at 5-4, and took the second set with the same result 6-4 to wrap up a fairly comfortable straight sets win.
Djokovic served 5 aces to Ljubicic’s 3.
The Serb hit 21 winners to the Croat’s 17, and made 30 unforced errors, 7 less than his opponent.
Nole capitalised on 2 of his 7 chances for break, while Ljubicic failed to capitalise on his 2 break points.
Novak will meet world no.1 Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. The Spaniard defeated his compatriot no.7 seed Fernando Verdasco in straight sets 6-4 7-5. Rafa and Nole have met 17 times, Nadal leads 13-4.
The match is scheduled on Saturday about 16:00 CET.
Novak Djokovic and Dusan Vemic lost their quarterfinal match to Simon Aspelin and Wesley Moodie 6-4 3-6 9-11.
