Novak Djokovic y Jannik Sinner They suffered this Friday but qualified for the semifinals of the Monte Carlo Masters 1000for the first time since his title in 2015 in the case of the Serbian, and for the second consecutive time for the Italian.
“A victory is a victory and I am happy to qualify for the semi-finals”the Serbian celebrated just after his victory against the Australian Alex De Miñaur (11th in the world) by 7-5 and 6-4.
“Neither of us played at a good level and it gave way to physical battle”the 36-year-old legend explained.
The statistics confirm his analysis; Djokovic committed 26 unforced errors and 13 winners, while De Minaur accounted for 28 and 19.
Especially in the second set, of the ten games played, seven ended with breaks: Djokovic held serve twice and De Minaur once. Midway through the second set, the Serbian seemed to suffer physically, especially due to the heat. But he knew how to endure.
With this victory, Nole set a new record: will play a 77th Masters 1000 semi-final on Saturdaywhich means one more than Rafael Nadal and eleven more than Roger Federer. He already holds the record for titles (40) and finals (58) in this category of tournaments.
Champion in 2013 and 2015, Since that last title, Djokovic had not surpassed the quarterfinals, reached twice (2017, 2019).. On Saturday he will face the Norwegian Casper Ruud (10th). The Roland Garros 2022 and 2023 finalist put an end to the Frenchman’s tournament Ugo Humbert (15th) with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.
Sinner resisted a terrible Rune
In the lower part of the draw, Jannik Sinner (2nd) found himself behind against Holger Rune (7th), but ended up winning 6-4, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3 in 2h40. “It is never easy to face Holger so I am happy for having won, but above all for having raised my level of play a little,” the Italian congratulated himself.
Last year, the Dane had defeated the Italian in the semifinals. On this occasion, Sinner confirmed that he is the man to beat from the beginning of the 2024 season, signing a 25th victory in 26 games.
But Rune was about to stop Sinner. Until now, the Italian has mercilessly disposed of his rivals with powerful goals from both his forehand and backhand to put an end to well-constructed sequences, but against Rune, Sinner seemed to have run out of ammunition.
The Italian calmly won the first set, achieving a break to lead 3-2. On two occasions in the second set, he went 40-0 during Rune’s serve, but on both occasions he lacked initiative and allowed Rune to chain 5 points with which to maintain his serve.
And at 5-5, Rune put on the mask of enfant terrible with which he faced the entire court. After being warned for running out of time before serving, he received some whistles from the crowd. Rune waved at the whistlers to shut up, which only increased the number and volume of the boos… and the Dane’s own gestures.
The referee had to intervene and gave him a new warning for misconduct. Showing no understanding, Rune sat down in the chair and asked the supervisor to intervene. After several minutes, he returned to the game and forced a tiebreak.
In that decisive game, Sinner got two match points at 6/4, but Rune showed enormous courage to save them and score four consecutive points, taking the Italian to a third set.
In the final set and with 3-3, the public felt the need to support Sinner more and the name “Jannik” began to be chanted and the tennis player’s points loudly applauded.
The winner of the Australian Open then scored three consecutive games with which to close the match.
The Greek awaits him in the semifinals Stefanos Tsitsipas (N.12), executioner hours before the Russian Karen Khachanov (N. 17) 6-4, 6-2.
The 25-year-old Greek, winner of the tournament in 2021 and 2022, was eliminated in the quarterfinals last year and will seek a new final.
2024-04-12 20:00:19
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