Nole continues his bid for a record 36th ATP Masters 1000 title.<\/p>\n
World no.1 Novak Djokovic advanced to his 11th semi-final at the Internazionali BNL d\u2019Italia on Friday, following his 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win against German qualifier Dominik Koepfer.<\/strong><\/p>\n Novak capitalised on six from his 21 break point opportunities, while his opponent converted all four break points he earned during the two hour, 11-minute clash at Centrale.<\/p>\n Novak started well, dictating rallies to earn a 4-0 lead. The German fought back breaking twice, but Djokovic quickly got back into his rhythm to clinch the first set.<\/p>\n The top seed took an early lead in the second set, but Koepfer found a way back, playing bravely to level at 3-all. He then forced a deciding third set breaking Novak’s serve once more at 5-4.<\/p>\n Nole served with confidence throughout the third set and regained composure. A break in the third game was enough for the Belgrade native to seal the win.<\/p>\n \u201cCredit to Dominik for fighting back, but I have myself to blame for putting myself in a position to play a third set,\u201d<\/strong> said Djokovic. \u201cI was a set and a break up and everything was looking great. I just wasn\u2019t managing to make that final shot, that final step to win in straights.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Match statistics: aces (5-4), double faults (0-4), winners (24-24), unforced errors (38-40), total points won (96-81).<\/p>\n Novak is now two match wins away from his fifth title in Rome and 36th Masters 1000 trophy.<\/p>\n With the victory over Koepfer, the 33-year-old Serbian star has improved to a 29-1 run in 2020, including title runs at the Australian Open, ATP Dubai and Cincinnati Masters.<\/p>\n Djokovic goes on to play Norwegian Casper Ruud (ATP #34) in Sunday’s semi-final. It will be their first career meeting.<\/strong><\/p>\n Looking ahead to the next challenge, Novak said: \u201cClay is definitely Casper\u2019s preferred surface. This is where he feels most comfortable. It is the semi-finals and it is anybody\u2019s game. I\u2019ll do some homework and be ready for that one.\u201d Photo: Profimedia<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nole continued his bid for a record 36th ATP Masters 1000 title. The world no.1 advanced to his 11th semi-final at the Internazionali BNL d\u2019Italia, following a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win against German qualifier Dominik Koepfer. He next faces Casper Ruud (NOR, ATP #34). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":136513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101012177,101012444,101012243,101011202,101010550,101012240],"class_list":["post-136517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-atp-1000-en","tag-internazionali-bnl-ditalia-en","tag-italy-en","tag-masters-en","tag-quarterfinals-en","tag-rome-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136517","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=136517"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136568,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136517\/revisions\/136568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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