Internazionali BNL d\u2019Italia<\/a> quarter-finals on Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\nIt was a fantastic match and a tough battle. Novak showed his class again against the great rival and friend.<\/p>\n
Novak was broken in the opening game of the match, but he responded immediately to get back on level terms. The first set was decided in a tie-break. Though Krajinovic earned a 4-1 lead, the world no.1 fought back and converted his fifth set point to grab a one set lead after one hour and 27 minutes. 122 points played were split evenly between the two, as each player won 61 points.<\/p>\n
Djokovic carried his momentum into the second set. The 33-year-old tennis ace from Belgrade elevated his game, shifting to a higher gear. He broke Filip’s serve in the third game and followed with another one in the ninth, to emerge victorious.<\/p>\n
It was their second tour-level meeting, they are now tied 1-1 in H2H series.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially in the first set it was a great battle,\u201d<\/strong> said Novak. \u201cIt was definitely one of the longest sets I\u2019ve ever played. We went toe-to-toe. It could have gone either way. Winning the first set gave me more confidence and allowed me to swing through the ball better. We both struggled physically in that first set; a lot of long rallies and almost every game went to deuce. This is what clay courts are all about. Filip is definitely one of my best friends; not just on tour but in my life. I\u2019m really happy that it’s coming together for him. He has the game; physically he\u2019s improved. I expect him to do better and better as time goes on.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nMatch statistics: aces (3-3), double faults (4-3), winners (32-25), unforced errors (33-29), total points won (91-82).<\/p>\n
Looking to reach the Rome Masters semi-finals, Novak will face Dominik Koepfer (GER, Q, ATP #97) on Saturday at 14.30 CET.<\/strong><\/p>\nPhoto: Tennis.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The top seed and four-time titlist beat his compatriot and Davis Cup teammate Filip Krajinovic 7-6 (7), 6-3 in two hours and seven minutes at Centrale to reach the Internazionali BNL d\u2019Italia quarter-finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":136369,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101012177,101012444,101011267,101012240,1039],"class_list":["post-136372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-atp-1000-en","tag-internazionali-bnl-ditalia-en","tag-masters-1000-en","tag-rome-en","tag-third-round"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136372","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136372"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136459,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136372\/revisions\/136459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}