Novak Djokovic maintained his management over Taylor Fritz, going through a notable problem earlier than securing a 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over the Twelfth-seeded American on a sizzling Tuesday on the Australian Open, advancing to his record-extending forty eighth Grand Slam semifinal.
The 36-year-old defending champion had crushed Fritz in all eight of their earlier conferences, together with a five-set win at Melbourne Park in 2021 and a crushing victory on the U.S. Open final 12 months.
However, Djokovic has taken his time to get going at this 12 months’s match as he seeks an eleventh title and twenty fifth main to surpass Margaret Court’s haul, and the top-seeded Serb was unable to interrupt in a marathon first recreation that had 9 deuces.
Fritz saved eight break factors and went toe-to-toe together with his opponent in energy-sapping situations earlier than organising two set factors, however Djokovic saved them each to power a tiebreak, the place he took his stage up a couple of notches.
The Serb cupped his ear as the group roared when he fired an excellent cross-court winner to earn 5 set factors and bagged the early lead within the contest after 84 minutes.
Fritz broke early within the subsequent set and bailed himself out of bother a number of instances with stinging backhand winners as Djokovic seemed to reply. Still, the 26-year-old American held agency and drew stage at one set all with a snug maintain.
Djokovic cooled off by putting ice packs on his head within the third set, however he was solely comfy after lastly breaking his opponent on his sixteenth try, en path to a 2-0 lead, which gave him the platform to push on and win the set.
Fritz appeared to wrestle together with his motion at instances within the fourth set, and Djokovic moved in for the kill to interrupt within the sixth recreation earlier than keeping off a comeback try from Fritz to prevail.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
