Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters<\/a> semi-finals for the fifth time on Friday as he blasted past Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 in 77 minutes.<\/strong><\/p>\nAfter Nieminen saved four break points in the opening game of the match, he broke Novak in the second, but the two-time runner up broke back immediately and held for 2-2. Djokovic converted one more chance in the ninth game and closed the set 6-4 in 40 minutes.<\/p>\n
Nole seized the momentum at the beginning of the second set. He made a double break\u00a0and raced to a 3-0 lead. Each player broke twice more, with Djokovic wrapping up victory on his first match point.<\/p>\n
“It was great,”<\/strong> said Novak. “Very solid from the back of the court. I played with the right intensity from the start of the match till the end. That’s a big step forward for me today comparing to the first two matches in every sense. I finally got a great feel on the clay. Hopefully I can maintain that level tomorrow.”<\/strong><\/p>\nMatch statistics<\/span>: aces (1-1), double faults (0-1), total points won (66-51).<\/p>\nIn the last four of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay court event, the top-seeded Belgrade native will face no.32 Fabio Fognini on Saturday (15.00 CET). <\/strong><\/p>\nThe Italian reached his first Masters semis with a 7-6, 6-2\u00a0win over seventh-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet.<\/p>\n
Novak has won all four of their previous encounters, the most recent in the second round of the 2013 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (6-0, 5-7, 6-2).<\/p>\n
“I have to be prepared for quality rallies,”<\/strong>\u00a0Djokovic said about the upcoming challenge. “He’s a player who has won against some top players here, a player who feels good. He is going to have nothing to lose and will be motivated to play well in front of his Italian supporters that are many here.”<\/strong><\/p>\nEight-time defending champion and no.3 seed, Spaniard Rafael Nadal, takes on sixth-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first semi-final of the day (13.00 CET).<\/p>\n
Photo: EPA<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak advanced to the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters last four with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Jarkko Nieminen in 77 minutes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":45189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101012177,101011181,101010550],"class_list":["post-45191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-atp-1000-en","tag-monte-carlo-rolex-masters-en","tag-quarterfinals-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45191","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=45191"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45194,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45191\/revisions\/45194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Nole](\"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/mc2013_06.jpg\")
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