{"id":162524,"date":"2023-01-25T12:12:54","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T11:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/?p=162524"},"modified":"2023-01-25T13:47:05","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T12:47:05","slug":"unstopable-novak-blitzes-rublev-for-australian-open-semi-final-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/news\/tennis\/unstopable-novak-blitzes-rublev-for-australian-open-semi-final-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Unstopable Novak blitzes Rublev for Australian Open semi-final spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Impressive Nole continues marching towards a record-tying 22nd Grand Slam title and a record-extending 10th <a href=\"https:\/\/ausopen.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Australian Open<\/a> trophy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>No.4 seed Novak Djokovic is through to the last four at the <a href=\"https:\/\/ausopen.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">first Grand Slam event of the year<\/a> following an outstanding quarter-final display and a commanding 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 victory over fifth seed Andrey Rublev on Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday evening.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Novak was immediately in the driving seat, determined to win in straight sets. The 35-year old Serbian star dominated from the word go, with all guns blazing.<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic broke five times from 14 opportunities and saved each of the five break points he faced in the two-hour, three-minute encounter with the Russian.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI cannot be happier with my tennis, honestly,&#8221;<\/strong> said Novak. <strong>&#8220;I&#8217;m playing very solid from the back of the court and really love playing in these conditions on this court. It&#8217;s definitely the most special court for me. Overall I think that the scoreline in the first two sets doesn&#8217;t speak the truth or the reality of the match. It was some really close games that we had. Andrey is a great opponent, a great player. I&#8217;ve got tons of respect for him, one of the biggest forehands, one of the the quickest players on the Tour. If I have to sum it up, all the important shots, the important moments I found my best tennis. So that&#8217;s what makes me the most pleased tonight.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Match statistics: aces (14-6), double faults (5-2), winners (32-26), unforced errors (21-29), total points won (105-75).<\/p>\n<p><strong>In his 44th Grand Slam semifinal on Friday, Novak will meet world no.35 Tommy Paul who won an all-American quarterfinal clash against Ben Shelton 7-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In other men&#8217;s last four match, Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE, 3) plays Karen Khachanov (RUS, 18).<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo: AP<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nole moved within two wins of record-extending 10th title in Melbourne when he defeated fifth seed Andrey Rublev 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 after two hours and three minutes of play. In his 44th Grand Slam semifinal on Friday, Djokovic meets world no.35 Tommy Paul who won an all-American quarterfinal against Ben Shelton 7-6 (6), 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":162521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101013305,101011740,101012051,101011403],"class_list":["post-162524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-australian-open-2023-en","tag-grand-slam","tag-melbourne","tag-quarterfinal-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162524","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=162524"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162561,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162524\/revisions\/162561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}