The American Tommy Paul (N. 35) will be the next opponent of a Djokovic who, whenever he has reached the semifinals of this Grand Slam, has left Melbourne with the title.
Forgotten his problems in his left leg, still under a cumbersome bandage, the Serb was once again intractable at the Rod Laver Arena, the track where he wants to match the 22 Grand Slams of the Spanish Rafael Nadal on Sunday.
“I love playing in these conditions on this track. It’s my favorite track,” he said. Noleadding with a smile that he hopes to continue his spectacular run in the Melbourne semi-finals.
Limping during the games of the first week, the Serbian showed from the first moment that he was the Djokovic who just two days ago had run over the local idol Álex de Miñaur.
Intractable on serve, with up to 14 ‘aces’, the “Djoker” made life impossible for Rublev from the rest, responding to his powerful services and dragging him into long rallies that the Russian had a hard time winning.
Sufferingly, Rublev held his first serve, but then succumbed. With ‘deuce’ and 2-1 on the scoreboard, he hit a forehand with the shaft of the racket and committed a double fault. Two games later, he gave up serve again.
In the second set, Rublev refined his first serves, but he also quickly found himself down 0-40 at 2-2 that Djokovic did not miss, harassing his rival with deep shots that ended up sending a backhand into the net.
Little did the Russian’s reaction matter, with two break points in the following game. With a final serve and reversing a rally that seemed lost, Djokovic saved them to the despair of Rublev, who complained to the judge about the time taken between serve and serve by the Serb.
Deranged, he lost the next game with a double fault and, although he let out his rage with several right lashes, he could no longer save the set.
“The score in the first two sets does not reflect the reality of the match,” said Djokovic, who used a break early in the third set to hold his lead until the end.