The world no.1 played another great match against Milos Raonic to win 7-6 (5) 6-4 6-2 in just 1 hour. Djokovic struggled a bit just in the opening set to win at the tiebreak (at 5). Then everything was “easy” for Nole especially because Raonic couldn’t find any solution on Djokovic’s serve. In the second set Milos managed to win only 2 points on Nole’s service games and that was devastating for the Canadian that dropped his own serve in the very first game. The 3rd set was even worse for the world no. 8 that has won (again) only 2 points on his return to drop his serve twice in the 3rd and 5th game.
The final score was 7-6 (5) 6-4 6-2 with Djokovic scoring 100 points vs. Raonic’s 77.
Djokovic: I am taking a lot of confidence
Nole commented “I take a lot of confidence. I try to carry that in every next match, next challenge. Obviously I’m going to play Stan, who is the defending champion here. We played five-set matches at the 2013 and ’14 Australian Opens. I’m going to be ready for a fight. But knowing that I have raised the level of performance tonight, and probably playing the best match of the tournament so far is affecting my confidence in a positive way. Hopefully I can carry that into next one.”
Raonic: I wish I would have served better
Milos admitted that he was outclassed especially on the baseline rallies “I just think [the first set] gave him a bit more belief. I wish I would have served better in certain moments, but I didn’t lose because of my serve. He just didn’t allow me to organize my game. Even when he was returning well, by the end of the match he was doing a good job of playing deep and never allowing me to go forward. Obviously if you watch the footage, he was pretty much on the baseline the whole time and I was further back.”
The semis vs. Djokovic
Stan will play Novak Djokovic in the semifinal. Head to head is 17-3 for the Serb, but Stan has won the last one in Melbourne with an epic 2-6 6-4 6-2 3-6 9-7.
Prediction: Djokovic in 4
| HAPPY NOLE |
| SIMPLY THE BEST |
