Top seed Novak Djokovic has booked his place in a record 48th Grand Slam semi-final after overcoming a spirited performance from Taylor Fritz at the Australian Open.
The world No.1 was given a stern test by the American before sealing a marathon 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, victory on the Rod Laver Arena. Djokovic has now won 94 matches at the Australian Open and extends his perfect winning head-to-head record against Fritz to 9-0.
“I suffered a lot in the first couple of sets which was also due to his high-quality tennis,” Djokovic said during his on-court interview with Nick Kyrgios.
“He was serving well, staying close to the line and kind of suffocating me from the back of the court. Most of the rallies I was on my back foot and it was really difficult to find the right timing.’
“Physically and emotionally it was draining.” He added.
It was a far from easy task for the 36-year-old, who converted only four out of 21 break point opportunities. Overall, he hit 52 winners against 26 unforced errors.
“Taylor has one of the best serves in the world. I saw him playing Tsitsipas a few days ago so I knew the threat he poses when he serves at such a high quality.” The reigning champion commented on Fritz.
“My conversation of break points was really poor. But at the end of the day, I managed to break it when it mattered.’
“I think I had more aces than he did which was a surprise stat. I think that helped me in this kind of match.”
The start of his match saw the 10-time champion battle through a marathon opening set that lasted 84 minutes which was only 22 minutes shorter than his entire match against Adrian Mannarino in the previous round. Djokovic failed to convert eight break point opportunities and then had to save two set points when down 5-6 before battling back to triumph in the tiebreaker. Drawing frustration from Fritz who had chances to take control of proceedings but failed to do so.
Djokovic’s problems continued into the second set which he began by getting broke straight away after a lull in his intensity on the court. The blip proved to be costly for the Serbian as Fritz went on to win only his third set against the world No.1 in their rivalry.
Remarkably it wasn’t until two hours and 39 minutes into the match when the 24-time Grand Slam winner broke the Fritz serve for the first time. Doing so at the early stages of the third frame as he swiftly restored his lead. As his opponent started to tire, Djokovic began to once again dominate on the court by winning four out of the next six games to move to a set from victory.
The rollercoaster continued into the fourth set with three breaks of serve before Djokovic moved himself to a game from victory. Serving for the match, he closed it out with a clean forehand winner after almost four hours of play. Awaiting him in the last four will be either Andrey Rublev or Jannik Sinner. Rublev is yet to lose a match this season and Sinner beat Djokovic twice towards the end of last season.
“Both Sinner and Rublev are in great form,” said Djokovic.
“I watched Rublev the other night against (Alex) de Minaur. The match had some of the quickest exchanges I’ve seen in the Rod Laver Arena in years.’
“Sinner, he is probably playing the best tennis of his life. he had a fantastic ending to last season and we had a couple of great encounters in Turin and also in the Davis Cup.”
Djokovic has now won 33 consecutive matches at the Australian Open which is the longest streak achieved by a male player in the Open Era.
