Novak Djokovic never admitted defeat in the semi-finals of the Rolex Paris Masters. A statistic that we thought we saw change for almost a set and a half this Saturday, before the Serb, never admitting defeat, managed to reverse the trend to win at the end of a highly competitive three-set battle. and three hours of play (5-7, 7-6 [3]7-5), against world number 5, Andrey Rublev.
” I did not learn anything. The four times he beat me, he beat me almost to 0. I learned nothing”, replied the Russian after his victory at the end of the night in the quarter-finals against Alex De Minaur on Friday, to the question of what he had learned from his five previous face-to-face meetings, including four defeats, against Djokovic. However, he was able to find a solution this Saturday, facing a world number 1 who seemed physically diminished. He admitted Thursday that he suffered from intestinal pain after his victory against Tallon Griekspoor in the round of 16.
In the first set, Novak Djokovic was a shadow of himself. Faulty, late on the balls, imprecise and lacking rhythm, the Serb who had started with a breaker from the start before being immediately brought back to score by Rublev at the end of a long marathon of backhands, stuck his head out of the water only thanks to winning serves and aces (5).
The Russian, more offensive, took advantage of the situation to corner him with powerful strikes and walk him from one end of the court to the other, and offered himself five break points in the first act, three of which were dismissed on serve. by the Serbian. The two men who played in the evening on Friday had left their feathers, so that the exchanges were quickly cut short, service, return winning at most. And as the exchange dragged on, it was Rublev who took the advantage. He thus broke at the best time to logically win the first set (7-5).
The second set on a thread
Rublev continued his work at the start of the second set. He built the points and even offered himself a break point at 1-0, but Djokovic immediately erased it with a new winning service. The Shanghai finalist, two weeks ago, then made a few mistakes which allowed the Serb to obtain two break points in his turn at 2-2, the last on an unstoppable long forehand, again erased by the Russian.
The match was played on a tightrope throughout the second set. Djokovic seemed more present in the rallies, regaining the solidity and rhythm that he had lacked in the first set, relying on his 8 aces serve and nearly 81% of points won on his first serve (compared to only 59% in the first). It is with this weapon that the holder of 24 Grand Slam titles dominated the tie-break to return to a set everywhere (7-3 in the tie-break, concluded with an ace).
Djokovic then slipped away from the court to put on an immaculate white t-shirt and leave the blue one in the closet. He also called the physiotherapist immediately to massage his back, making the Russian wait a little less than 13 minutes on the bench. An intervention and a break which visibly revived the Serbian, who appeared much more offensive and resistant to the attacks of the world number 5 in the third set.
But Rublev did not let this fool him, he redoubled his power. Under the influence of a break point at 2-1, he won his serve with an unstoppable forehand rocket. He continued to keep score, encouraged by the public, but turned out to be more imprecise when the Serb raised his level of play, more clinical. After erasing a second break point, he finally let the game win slip away with a frustrating double fault and hit his racket on the ground.