The Serb, who was in the forefront throughout the match, beat Andrey Rublev in three sets and will face Tommy Paul in his tenth final at the Australian Open.
Novak Djokovic is already in the semifinals of the Australian Open 2023 after beating Russian Andrey Rublev (6-1, 6-2 and 6-4) on the fast court and with superlative tennis. The Serb, who felt uncomfortable in the early rounds of the tournament, is clearly going from less to more in Melbourne. Despite still wearing a cumbersome bandage on his left thigh, Djkovovic has not suffered a hamstring injury in his last two matches.
In terms of tennis, a match similar to that of the round of 16 against De Miñaur, with Rublev powerless with his forehand, his best weapon, absolutely unable to disturb Djokovic when it was his turn to serve the Serb. The Belgrade man executed his serves with astonishing ease, with 14 aces and over 80% success on the first serve.
The Russian, who reached the quarter-finals after a remarkable tournament, again suffered his greatest debt as a tennis player, the mental aspect. With the first breaks, Rublev began to make unforced errors, adding to the clean sheet to take advantage of the few break balls he had throughout the game, making the challenge of beating Djokovic at Rod Laver Arena much more difficult.
At the end of the match, the Serb acknowledged that “on the days off from the tournament I spend the day connected to machines to recover from my discomfort.” He also had time to congratulate his mother, who recently had her birthday, and to remember Roger Federer, for whom he asked for applause and whom he said “tennis misses him very much”.
Djokovic is one step away from reaching his tenth final in Melbourne. His rival in the semifinals will be American Tommy Paul, who defeated his compatriot Ben Shelton (7-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4). The American thus reaches his first Grand Slam semi-finals, the first from his country since 2009, and will do so against the king of Australia, who always won the tournament when he reached the semi-finals. An unprecedented duel, since the Serb and the American have never met on the ATP circuit.
Next Wednesday, the second semifinal in the draw for the ladies has also been decided, which will compete against Aryna Sabalenka and Magda Linette. The Belarusian tennis player defeated Croatian Donna Vekic 6-3, 6-2 to become the only player who did not lose a set in the entire tournament.
The Pole also defeated Czech Karolina Pliskova (6-3, 7-5) in straight sets to reach her first Grand Slam semifinals at the age of 30. Linette will be the only semifinalist in the women’s draw not to start as the top seed of the tournament.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
