What a match!
Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer play an outstanding semifinal in Paris that lasted a bit more than 3 hours.
The story of the match
There was a lot of (competitive) tension from the very beginning of the match when both Roger and Nole were extremely cautious during the rallies. As expected, Nole was more solid from the baseline while Roger was using his great serve to hold his games.
The first set went straight to the tiebreak, even if Federer struggled a lot to hold his serve in the 2nd, 8th, and 12th game. In the breaker, the Maestro got a 4-2 lead and later he had a set point (6-5) that he couldn’t convert after he missed a backhand. Djokovic took full advantage of that lapse to win 3 consecutive points and the set (7-6).
In the second set, after a couple of complicated service games in the first 2 games for both players, Djokovic conceded just 1 point in the following 4 service games while Federer had to work a bit more. Eventually, things got an unexpected turn when the Serbian legend suddenly dropped his serve in the 12th game (7-5).
The decider also when straight to the tiebreak, but again while Djokovic was extremely stable in holding his serve, Federer had to save 2 consecutive break points (15-40) in the 1st and in the 9th game. The Swiss couldn’t hang anymore more in the final tiebreak, as Djokovic conquered a strong 6-1 lead before winning the breaker at 3. The final result was 7-6 (6) 5-7 7-6 (3) and the matches ended after 3 hours and 2 minutes.
Even if this was a big battle, Djokovic was the better player. Federer had to save 12 break points while Djokovic conceded only 2 break points.
The final
Nole will face Khachanov in the final. The H2H is 1-0 for the Serb.
GREAT MATCH!
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