Serbian tennis stalwart Novak Djokovic entered his 45th career Grand Slam semi-final after defeating Karen Khachanov 4-6, 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinal of the French Open 2023 on Tuesday. Djokovic conceded the opening set to the Russian 11th seed and struggled to overcome the 27-year-old in the second set as well. However, the 22-time Grand Slam champion successfully won the tie-breaker to pave the way for an easy win thereafter with comfortable victories in the following two sets.
Djokovic is nearing breaking two big records with his latest win. Firstly, he is just one short of Swiss legend Roger Federer’s 46 appearances in the semi-final of a major. Secondly, he is merely two wins away from an all-time record of 23 Grand Slam championship wins.
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Currently, Djokovic is tied with Rafael Nadal with 22 Grand Slams to their name each. Nadal, who has 14 French Open crowns to his name, has missed out of this edition of the tournament due to a hip injury and it is hence likely that Djokovic might very well end up lifting the trophy in the men’s singles category post the summit clash.
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🔜 SEMIS IDEMOOO 💪🏼🙌🏼🙏🏼🎾🔥☄️🇫🇷 #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/2sT5KIE2Qh
— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) June 6, 2023
“It (tiebreak) was probably the turning point of the match. Winning the second set or, you know, losing the second set would be quite a big difference. It worked really well for me. I must say I played a perfect tiebreak, seven-love. Every point was perfectly scripted for me, so to say,” Djokovic mentioned after beating Kachanov in a hard-fought last-eight encounter.
“First couple sets, probably the worst two sets I played so far in the tournament. It's not the first match that I managed to turn things around. These kind of wins, I think serve as a great confidence booster mentally, so also physically and emotionally for me. It's important to win a match where you were losing or you were being down and then you came back and won a match, especially at the latter stage of a Grand Slam,” the 36-year-old signed off.
Djokovic will face World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-final at the Court Philippe Chatrier on Friday.
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