By Chris Oddo | Friday August 17, 2018
Novak Djokovic battled past two game opponents to book his spot in the Western and Southern Open semis on Friday in Cincinnati.
Photo Source: Matthew Stockman/Getty
It hasn’t exactly been perfect tennis that Novak Djokovic has played in Cincinnati, but there has been an element of fortitude that has propelled the Serb past every difficult test he has faced. Today he faced two such tests, and passed both with flying colors.
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The reigning Wimbledon champion finished off a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over defending champion Grigor Dimitrov early on Friday before battling past a pesky Milos Raonic for the ninth straight time to earn a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 victory.
The contest with Raonic was tight the whole way, and the Canadian was in the driver’s seat in the third set, leading by a break at 2-1. But the Serb broke back immediately on his third break point of the next game, sending a first-serve return back deep before whipping a backhand down the line that Raonic couldn’t handle.
An emphatic celebration by Djokovic followed, and the energy never dipped as the 13-time major champion broke again for 5-3 and closed the match by winning five of the final six games.
Against two totally different opponents, both victories were similar for Djokovic. He had to battle to find his form, needed to overcome lapses in concentration and found his stride late to take charge.
“I mean, I got him exactly where I wanted him to be, and he also, in those moments, he just kind of relaxed a little bit and he started going for more, because that's his only chance to beat me,” Dimitrov lamented after his eighth loss in nine matches against Djokovic. “Everything went his way, to be honest.”
Djokovic still hasn’t played his best tennis but he’ll have a chance to do that on Saturday when he meets Marin Cilic for a spot in his sixth Cincinnati final.
Cilic also came through two matches on Friday, as the 2016 champion finished off a rain-suspended battle from Thursday with Karen Khachanov, 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4, before knocking off Pablo Carreno Busta, 7-6(7), 6-4.
On Saturday Djokovic and Cilic will meet for the 17th time, and while the Serb owns the 14-2 lifetime edge it is Cilic who has taken the pair’s last two meetings, including a dramatic 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-3 victory in the Queen’s Club final just before Wimbledon.
"Definitely Novak is playing really well," Cilic said. "I just watched the end of this match, and the level was definitely high and he's in definitely really good form. We played tough match in Queen's, but that's grass and definitely different. So I have to get ready and, you know, give full shot."
Djokovic is a five-time finalist in Cincinnati but he has never won the title in Ohio. If he can manage a title the Serb would become the first player in ATP history to own a title at each of the active Masters 1000 tournaments.