Novak Djokovic reaches French Open semis, step closer to career Slam
PARIS — Five wins down, two to go.
Thursday Novak Djokovic brushed off any challenge from Tomas Berdych with relative ease, the world No. 1 winning a rain-interrupted quarterfinal 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 in a little more than two hours to reach his sixth consecutive semifinal at the French Open and 30th at a major in his career.
That means two matches to go for the Serbian to complete the career Grand Slam, having already won titles at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He has made the final here in three out of the last four years.
Yet the match wasn’t without its controversy, with Djokovic nearly hitting a linesperson with his racket when he smashed it against the ground – the racket errantly flying out of his hand – and Berdych complaining over a decision by the officials to move the players off the court for rain in the middle of the third set.
Djokovic beat Berdych, the No. 7 seed, for the 24th time in 26 meetings, including the 11th straight. He will face Dominic Thiem, a 22-year-old in his first Grand Slam semifinal, for a spot in the final. On Thursday Thiem defeated David Goffin 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-4, 6-1. Djokovic leads their head-to-head 2-0, though they've never met on clay.
Djokovic won seven games in a row from 2-3 down in the first set to 6-3, 3-0 up in the second. Berdych would turn the tables, however, the Czech 30-year-old getting back to 3-4 on serve and extending the set to 5-6.
But Djokovic would break again in the 12th game when Berdych hit a forehand into the doubles alley, the 11-time major champion leading two sets to love.
As rain began to fall, Djokovic was broken to start the third set and then missed a break point chance at 30-40 in game two. That’s when the Serbian meant to flick his racket against the ground, instead the handle slipping out of his hand and the racket going flying.
It nearly hit a linesperson at the back of the court, the man moving out of the way of the racket. Djokovic risked being defaulted – disqualified – from the match should the racket have hit the linesperson in the face.
"I'm lucky, you said it," Djokovic responded to a reporter when asked about the racket nearly hitting the linesperson. "I'm lucky."
The two played to a 3-3 tie in the third set when officials brought them off court, saying the rain was becoming heavier. Berdych took issue with the decision, complaining to tournament supervisor Wayne McKewen that play should not be stopped.
"This is an absolute circus, one big circus," Berdych said to McKewen as the players were sent off. "It's been [raining] like this for two and a half sets"
The players returned less than 10 minutes later and Djokovic closed out the match without losing another game, winning in two hours, six minutes.
Should Djokovic's racket had hit the linesperson, chair umpire Eva Asderaki and McKewen would have assessed the situation and given Djokovic what they thought was the correct penalty, one of which could have been to default him.
"I mean, if he would have hit the [linesperson], it would be over," Berdych told reporters.
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