{"id":42881,"date":"2013-03-01T15:59:47","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T14:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/?p=42881"},"modified":"2013-03-02T16:55:42","modified_gmt":"2013-03-02T15:55:42","slug":"novak-downs-del-potro-for-final-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/news\/tennis\/novak-downs-del-potro-for-final-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Nole downs Del Potro for final spot!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-42878\" alt=\"Nole u 55. finalu u karijeri!\" src=\"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/dubai_05.jpg\" width=\"590\" height=\"385\" srcset=\"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/dubai_05.jpg 590w, https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/dubai_05-300x196.jpg 300w, https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/dubai_05-267x174.jpg 267w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Top seed Novak Djokovic has put on another solid performance at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dubaidutyfreetennischampionships.com\/\">Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships<\/a>, beating fourth seed Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 7-6 (4) to progress to his fourth final at the ATP World Tour 500 event.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Novak capitalised on his first break point opportunity in the sixth game of the opening set, and closed it 6-3 in 35 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Players exchanged breaks twice in a tight second set, before Djokovic seized the initiative in a tiebreaker to seal the match.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;I was very pleased with the performance overall and the way I handled myself in the tough moments,&#8221;<\/strong> Novak said.\u00a0 <strong>&#8220;Mentally I stayed tough and believed that I could go all the way and win in straight sets. I have been very positive and confident, so I think that resulted with overall a really good performance.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nole converted 3 of his 6 break point chances and won 83 per cent of first service points to lock up the victory over the Argentine in one hour and 44 minutes. He improved to 8-2 career record against del Potro.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Match statistics<\/span>: aces (7-7), double faults (0-0), total points won (76-65).<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic is looking to capture the trophy in Dubai for the fourth time, having triumphed in 2009, 2010 and 2011.<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old Belgrade native won his 17th consecutive match and improved his overall record to 12-0 on the season.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Novak will face no.3 seed Tomas Berdych on Saturday at 19.00 local time (16.00 CET)\u00a0in his 55th tour-level final (35-19 record). Berdych <strong>defeated five-time champion Roger Federer\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><strong><strong>3-6, 7-6, 6-4<\/strong><\/strong><strong><strong>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nole leads H2H record against the Czech 12-1.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;I want to win this title, and whoever I play against tomorrow I will try to enjoy the match and of course fight to get to the trophy. I think it&#8217;s going to be a thrilling match to watch. Very close, I think. I&#8217;m going to have to be on top of my game.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You can download Nole March Desktop Wallpaper <a href=\"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/calendar_march_2013.jpg\">here<\/a>.<em id=\"__mceDel\"><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Photo: EPA<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Novak beat no.4 seed Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 7-6 in one hour and 44 minutes to reach his fourth Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":42878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101012179,101011125,101012428,101010433],"class_list":["post-42881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-atp-500-en","tag-dubai-2013-en","tag-dubai-duty-free-tennis-championships","tag-semifinal-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42881","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=42881"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42892,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42881\/revisions\/42892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}