That was a tough way to get to the semis as both players had to play twice in the same day to stay on top of the tournament schedules.
Djokovic – Haas 6-3 3-6 6-3
Nole had an easy win early in the afternoon against Querrey (6-4 6-4) in only 75 minutes while Tommy came out from a 2 hours match against Stepanek (2-6 6-4 6-1). Both players were really tired as Nole still had to recover from the Olympic hangover (and a different surface) and Tommy has been playing a lot during the past few weeks.
Unfortunately for Nole, it took too much for him to defeat Haas (2h and 33min) and he may pay the price for it in the semifinal against his fellow countryman Tipsarevic.
“For me, it’s been a long two days. I don’t know how I found a way. I think I was fighting very hard, and that’s the positive of tonight’s match. That’s why I won, I think.” said Nole
Djokovic commented about the next semi, “It’s never easy, but we are professionals. We try to win the match whoever is across the net. We met first time probably 12, 15 years ago back in Serbia, and he was the best junior in the world and one of the players I was looking up to. I’m very glad that he managed to come to Top 10. He’s playing probably the best tennis of his life in the last 15 months.”
Tipsarevic – Granollers 6-4 6-4
Easiest path for Janko as it took only 64 minutes to defeat Cilic (6-2 6-4) and 97 minutes to down Granollers.
These easy wins will be an immense asset for Tipsarevic as he played “only” 2h and 41 minutes in aggreagate against Nole’s 3h and 48min. On top of it Tipsarevic had a less stresfull Olympic games while Nole had to play all the way through.
Semifinal Prediction
Head to Head is 4-2 for Nole (1 all on hard court). Interesting enough Janko won the last 2 matches out of three where Nole was not at ease (Round Robig at the World Tour Finals when Nole was half injured and on the blue clay in Madrid this year).
Tipsarevic knows that Nole is mentally and phisically tired (and jetlagged) and he will give it a shot!
An upset would not be so strange… actually Tipsarevic seems to have better chances.
