{"id":78851,"date":"2016-03-19T00:33:41","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T23:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/?p=78851"},"modified":"2016-03-19T08:41:24","modified_gmt":"2016-03-19T07:41:24","slug":"novak-sets-nadal-semi-final-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/news\/tennis\/novak-sets-nadal-semi-final-showdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Nole sets Nadal semi-final showdown!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-78847\" src=\"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/iw2016_13.jpg\" alt=\"Nole u polufinalu prvog Mastersa sezone!\" width=\"590\" height=\"391\" srcset=\"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/iw2016_13.jpg 590w, https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/iw2016_13-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/iw2016_13-267x177.jpg 267w, https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/iw2016_13-264x176.jpg 264w, https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/iw2016_13-150x100.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>World no.1 and top seed Novak Djokovic edged past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday afternoon at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bnpparibasopen.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">BNP Paribas Open<\/a>, reaching the semi-final with a 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2) victory on Stadium 1.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It was the 21st meeting between Nole and Tsonga, Djokovic now leads their H2H 15-6.<\/p>\n<p>Novak made a break in the third game and held for 3-1 lead. He failed to close out the first set when he served at 5-4, but recovered to clinch it in the tie-breaker.<\/p>\n<p>Tsonga went up a break in the second set, but Djokovic fought back immediately to level at 2-2. The Frenchman saved two match points in the 10th game, before Nole again dominated the tie-break to seal the win in two hours and 6 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic won 79% of his first service points and was 14\/20 when approaching the net.<\/p>\n<p><u>Match statistics<\/u>: aces (2-4), double faults (4-7), winners (18-22), unforced errors (24-47).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Novak will take on no.4 seed Rafael Nadal (Saturday about 21:00 CET) for a place in the Indian Wells final. The Belgrade native leads their ATP Head2Head series 24-23. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nadal beat fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan earlier in the day (6-4, 6-3).<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead to the semi-final challenge, Novak said: <strong>&#8220;He&#8217;s a great competitor, a great fighter. I won the past couple of times we played against each other, so maybe that can give me a slight mental advantage coming into the court. But everything is open. It&#8217;s the semi-finals. We both have won multiple titles here and hopefully we can come up with some good tennis. I hope I can deliver my best game tomorrow.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Djokovic is chasing an unprecedented fifth Indian Wells crown. The 28-year-old Serb, who has a 20-1 record in 2016, has triumphed at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in the past two years, adding to the titles he won in 2008 and 2011. He has a 45-6 record in the desert.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In the first semi-final clash on Saturday (19:00 CET), Milos Raonic (MNE, 12) faces David Goffin (BEL, 15).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Photo: Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Novak outplayed Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2) to reach his sixth successive semi-final at the BNP Paribas Open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":78848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101012177,101012543,133,101012149,101011745],"class_list":["post-78851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-atp-1000-en","tag-bnp-paribas-open-2016-en","tag-defending-champion","tag-indian-wells","tag-quarterfinal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78851","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=78851"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78875,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78851\/revisions\/78875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novakdjokovic.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}