Western and Southern Open Masters in Cincinnati is reaching its final stages. Last quarterfinal match was between Novak Djokovic and Lucas Pouille. The world’s No.1 defeated the Frenchman 2:0, 7-6, 6-1, and earned his seventh semis here in Ohio.
Despite his rival’s good performance, Djokovic managed to advance to the next round following an exciting and attractive match which excited the fans at the central court.
Novak played against Pouile at his usual level, serving constant, winning the points without any troubles, letting the French threaten only once. But that rush in the fifth game of the opening set was just temporary. Meanwhile, the Serb waited for the rivals mistake, and he finally caught one in the tiebreak.
The Joker would win that part of the contest easily with 7-2, and grab the first set, creating a huge swing before the rest of the event.
“He double-faulted and missed a couple of forehands, and obviously that cost him the tie-break,” explained Djokovic how he saw that part of the contest.”
This development definitely had a huge impact on Pouille, who couldn’t recover from losing the first set. Instead of continuing at the same level, his game dropped, and when you have a player like Djokovic on the opposite side of the net, you get punished right away.
Pouille lost his first serving game with Djokovic winning a break, while on the other side had three break-point chances to respond immediately and failed to use any. Novak’s serve in the second set was a bit worse than in the opening one, but all the other categories stayed at the same level.
There weren’t many hopes for the Frenchman. He eventually lost the motivation to fight, and had to congratulate the opponent.
“The beginning of the second set I knew it was very important to try to break his serve right away and get into an advantage, which I did,” Djokovic said. “I managed to finish off the match really well.”
This would be his 63rd Masters’ semifinals. And his opponent will be the in-form Daniil Medvedev, whose been playing very well since the US Open Tour started. The Russian eliminated his countryman Andrey Rublev with 6-2, 6-3 in just one hour of play. Since the tournament began, he didn’t lose a single set here in Cincinnati. Previously, Medvedev lost two finals in Washington DC and Toronto at Rogers Cup.
Many believed that this clash is going to be much more interesting, especially after Rublev eliminated Roger Federer, but that turned out to be much different.
“I played great. I think I managed to [pressure him] straight away as [I have] every match I played here. In both sets I was breaking him early, giving me a lot of confidence,” Medvedev said.
Saturday’s match will be the fifth clash between him and Novak, and the current record is 3-1 in favor of the Serb. However, Medvedev is the one who won the latest meeting, this year in Monte Carlo.
The second semifinals will be played between David Goffin and Richard Gasquet.
