[Interaction] Novak Djokovic defeats Karen Khachanov and reaches the semi-finals
Novak Djokovic survived a quarter-final scare from Karen cachanov to keep his bid for a record 23rd men’s Grand Slam singles title alive at the French Open Djokovic was in danger of falling two sets behind against the Russian but prevailed four to six seven to six seven to zero six to two six to four he could become the first man to win all four majors at least three times djokovic’s win sets up a potential semi-final with world number one Carlos alcaraz who faces Stefanos City Pass in Tuesday’s night session 1915 British summer time the Serb had
not dropped a set all tournament on the Paris clay but katanov provided the test he arguably needed to prepare him for either alcaraz or City Pass in the last four having faced seven break points saving six of them in losing the opening set Djokovic tightened up his service game for the majority of the match thereon and while the 36-year-old was kept on court for three hours and 43 minutes the outcome never really looked in doubt once he comprehensively won the second set tie break I played the perfect tie break and from that moment onwards I
played a couple of levels higher than I did at the beginning Djokovic said in his on-court interview it was a big fight it’s what you expect in the
year old especially towards the end how how did you feel out there first of all I feel bad for cutting uh cutting I’m in trouble in the middle of uh of his uh assessment and Analysis I love to to listen to in sorry John if you’re listening I’m sorry and nice to see you um you know look it was uh I I I guess two matches in one really uh the first couple sets I think I stayed in the locker room and that’s how I felt uh really didn’t move well didn’t strike the ball well
uh John made a comment about uh Moon balling the return I mean I did that because I just didn’t feel you know I guess the right Tempo or the split step and kind of moving towards the ball and making it more aggressive and yeah just a lot of unforest errors and I mean also credit to to Karen for you know firing some big servs and making me play making me move around I was just quite quite flat I must say with with my feet and that resulted with uh you know uh set and a half
of uh not such a great performance and great level of tennis but managed to find a way to the tie break and then in the second and then I played really pretty much a perfect tie break I don’t recall playing such a good tie break in a long time I mean in terms of uh really uh every single point you know winning seven love and then I felt like I flipped the switch from that point onwards uh uh you know started swinging through the ball a bit more played a really good third set I had
things in control until 4 4 2 15 40 played on the one end of the Court where I was I had a wind in my back and I just felt like I a couple of missed opportunities easy misses and you know I lost my serve the very next game things got really complicated but you know I stayed stayed in the moment and played a perfect last day point analysis which came into the match having won 29 successive sets in Grand Slams but kachenov ended that streak in just under an hour on court Philippe chatria the
world number 11 matched Djokovic in the returning Stakes not usually a catching of strength early on and finally broke serve in a marathon fifth game after seeing four previous break points saved he served out the set despite a typically dogged Djokovic saving three set points two on his own serve and one on catchanovs neither player earned a single break point in a serve dominated second set which Djokovic claimed in clinical fashion without dropping a point in a one-sided tie break a fortunate net Court handed Djokovic a break of serve in a lengthy opening game of
the third set and he rarely looked back from there as kachinov’s challenge discernably faulted the Russian had never beaten a top five player in a grand slam or on Clay holding zero to eight records in both categories and the belief he showed in the opening two sets began to Desert him kachanov still showed quality to test Djokovic in patches particularly late in the fourth set where he threatened a Revival by breaking back from three to one down but Djokovic won eight successive points from four to four to wrap up victory in style with an ace
a ninth victory in ten meetings with cachinov sealed a 45th slam semi-final appearance for Djokovic one shy of the record held by Roger Federer but it is the big one the record 23rd men’s title that surely motivates him and with the injured Nadal absent not just in Paris but probably for the rest of the year the Spaniard will likely be looking to his compatriot alcaraz to help him preserve his share of the grand slam title record
