{"id":114690,"date":"2019-01-03T18:08:33","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T17:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/?p=114690"},"modified":"2019-01-03T21:31:04","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T20:31:04","slug":"novak-sees-off-basilashvili-challenge-to-advance-into-last-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/news\/tennis\/novak-sees-off-basilashvili-challenge-to-advance-into-last-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak sees off Basilashvili challenge to advance into last 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Novak overcame a formidable challenge from no.5 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili, having to come from a set down to progress into the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.qatartennis.org\/ar\/tournaments\/qatar-exxonmobil-open-2019\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Qatar ExxonMobil Open<\/a> semi-final.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The top-seeded Serb needed one hour and 56 minutes to defeat the Georgian 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 and seal the second win in as many career meetings between the two.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Novak was made to work hard once more at the ATP 250 event in Doha on Thursday as the two-time former titlist fought back from a set down for the second day in a row.<\/p>\n<p>Basilashvili opened with his aggressive style of play, breaking in the first and fifth games en route to a 4-1 lead. Though Novak broke back once, he remained calm under pressure to take the first set.<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic regrouped quickly and responded well by taking a 3-0 advantage in the second set. He also broke early in the deciding third, but his rival broke back immeadiately. The 31-year-old Belgrade native made a crucial break in the fifth game and served it out to love to advance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;I thought Basilashvili was playing terrific from the beginning. I expected him to,&#8221;<\/strong> said Novak. <strong>&#8220;I knew that he\u2019s playing probably the tennis of his life in the past 10 months, and he\u2019s definitely one of the greatest hitters in the game.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Match statistics: aces (7-4), double faults (3-3), total points won (87-81).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Novak will meet seventh seed Roberto Bautista Agut on Friday for a place in Saturday&#8217;s final.<\/strong> <strong>The Spaniard eliminated Stan Wawrinka in straight sets.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It will be the eighth career encounter between Djokovic and Agut, Nole leads their ATP H2H 7-1.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Novak and Marko fell in the doubles semi-final thriller, losing to David Goffin and Pierre-Hugues Herbert 1-6, 6-3, 13-15.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Djokovic brothers had saved two match points before earning their chances to win. They failed to capitalise on three match points and the Belgian\/French duo eventually used their third opportunity to book their place in the final.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo: AFP<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Noval overcame a formidable challenge from no.5 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili, having to come from a set down to reach the Qatar Open semis. He will meet seventh seed Roberto Bautista Agut on Friday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":114667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101012178,101011591,101011592,101011403],"class_list":["post-114690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-atp-250-en-2","tag-doha-en","tag-qatar-exxonmobil-open-en","tag-quarterfinal-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114690","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=114690"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114736,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114690\/revisions\/114736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}