{"id":104558,"date":"2018-07-11T17:25:39","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T15:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/?p=104558"},"modified":"2018-07-11T23:16:32","modified_gmt":"2018-07-11T21:16:32","slug":"novak-to-face-nadal-or-del-potro-in-wimbledon-semis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/news\/tennis\/novak-to-face-nadal-or-del-potro-in-wimbledon-semis\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak to face Nadal in Wimbledon semis!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>No.12 seed Novak Djokovic got back at his best level to defeat Kei Nishikori 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 and joined the last 4 at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wimbledon.com\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wimbledon<\/a> for the first time since 2015.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The three-time former titlist continued his run for a fourth trophy at the All England Club, clinching the victory in two hours and 35 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Novak claimed the first set from Nishikori 6-3 on Centre Court, but after missing three break point chances in the third game of the second set, Kei broke him at first opportunity for 3-1 and kept the advantage to level the battle. Down three break points at 2-2 in the third set, Nole lost just two more games to reach the first major semi-final since 2016.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cIt feels great to be in the last four of a slam,\u201d<\/strong> Djokovic said. <strong>\u201cI have been building over the last couple of weeks, and the level of tennis I have played in the last couple of months felt like it was getting better and better and I feel like I am peaking at the right moment. I have been here before and I will try and enjoy this victory. I have worked very hard to try and get myself in the best possible shape for the biggest event and this is certainly one of the best.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Match statistics: aces (6-3), double faults (3-1), winners (40-29), unforced errors (21-34), total points won (118-90).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ANAsKalOiRU\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Novak is through to his 32nd Grand Slam semi-final, second to Roger Federer (44). He also recorded his 63rd match win at SW19, the same number as 1993-95, 1997-2000 Wimbledon titlist Pete Sampras.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The 31-year-old Serbian star will take on second seed Rafael Nadal (26-25 H2H) on Friday. The Spaniard edged Juan Martin del Potro (ARG, 5) in a five-set thriller.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Photo: AP<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The former world no. 1, winner in 2011,  2014 and 2015 at the All England Club, played with great discipline to overcome the power of 24th seed Kei Nishikori 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 for a place in the semi-finals. He will next face Rafael Nadal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":104446,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101010469,101011507,101012193,101011403,101011449,101012990],"class_list":["post-104558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-grand-slam-en-2","tag-kei-nishikori","tag-london-en","tag-quarterfinal-en","tag-the-championships-en","tag-wimbledon-2018-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104558"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104642,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104558\/revisions\/104642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}