{"id":134959,"date":"2020-08-26T23:01:32","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T21:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/?p=134959"},"modified":"2020-08-27T09:35:43","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T07:35:43","slug":"novak-moves-into-cincinnati-semis-sets-up-clash-with-bautista-agut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/news\/tennis\/novak-moves-into-cincinnati-semis-sets-up-clash-with-bautista-agut\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak moves into Cincinnati semis, sets up clash with Bautista Agut"},"content":{"rendered":"

World no.1 Novak Djokovic has made it through to the semi-finals of the Western & Southern Open<\/a> for the eighth time when he faced Jan-Lennard Struff on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The top-seed joined exclusive W&S Open Club. He shares record for most Cincinnati SF appearances with Jimmy Connors, Stefan Edberg, Roger Federer and Bill Talbert.<\/p>\n

Djokovic beat the 34th-ranked Struff in straights sets 6-3, 6-1 in just over an hour, and now leads their ATP H2H series 4-0.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Novak sailed past the German with confidence, converting five of his nine break point chances, and saving two of the three break points he faced.<\/p>\n

The 17-time Grand Slam titlist improved to a perfect 21-0 record on the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great. I started a little bit tight in my opening couple of service games. Ever since I made that break at the beginning of the first set, I never looked back,\u201d<\/strong> said Djokovic. \u201cI really played very aggressive whenever I had the chance and I was going for my shots.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Match statistics: aces (5-5), double faults (3-8), winners (17-11), unforced errors (12-27), total points won (59-35).<\/p>\n

For a place in the Cincinnati Masters final, Novak will play Roberto Bautista Agut (on Friday), who rallied past defending champion Daniil Medvedev 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Djokovic leads their overall H2H 8-3, but the Spaniard has won their past three hard-court matches.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to the next challenge, the Serbian star said: \u201dWe always expect Roberto to play on a certain level. <\/strong>He doesn\u2019t drop much. He doesn\u2019t give it away. You have to earn your points. He is so solid from the back of the court. Roberto found a way against Medvedev and that is obviously a virtue of champions.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nole is seeking his second Western & Southern Open trophy after completing the Career Golden Masters at the ATP 1000 event in 2018.<\/p>\n

Photo: AP
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world no.1 has made it through to the last four of the Western & Southern Open for the eighth time, sailing past big-hitting German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 6-1 in just over an hour. He goes on to face Roberto Bautista Agut for a place in the Masters 1000 event final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":134958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101012177,101012291,101011267,101012298,101010550,101012292],"class_list":["post-134959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-atp-1000-en","tag-cincinnati-en","tag-masters-1000-en","tag-new-york-en","tag-quarterfinals-en","tag-usa-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134959","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=134959"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135010,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134959\/revisions\/135010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}