Alex de Minaur has missed out on a uncommon likelihood to beat Novak Djokovic twice in the identical season, serving up a mistake-riddled show simply when the world No.1 regarded weak of their Monte Carlo Masters quarter-final.
De Minaur, who had began his 12 months by ending Djokovic’s 43-match win streak in Australia on the United Cup, shall be cursing himself that he could not fairly ship his ‘A recreation’ once more as he succumbed 7-5 6-4 over two lengthy, draining units on Friday.
Djokovic wasn’t at his sharpest, regarded a bit of ring-rusty and weary in a bodily demanding clay-court slog however his big-match nous nonetheless proved an excessive amount of as he set one more document by reaching his 77th semi-final in a Masters 1000 occasion, edging him previous the mark he’d shared with Rafael Nadal.
There have been moments when de Minaur, the primary Australian to get this far in Monte Carlo since Mark Philippoussis 25 years in the past, had the nice man scrambling however after making it a brutal slugfest, he let himself down with lapses of focus on the finish of the primary set and all through the second.
At the tip of their curiously patchy two-hour four-minute battle, which had featured a minimum of seven breaks of serve alone within the second stanza, de Minaur instructed his conqueror on the internet that it had been an “ugly” affair.
“In the second set I think it was,” agreed Djokovic. “We didn’t really play at a high level, we made a lot of unforced errors, there were a lot of consecutive breaks of serve – but a win is a win and I’m glad to go through.
“It was powerful for each off us. Alex is without doubt one of the quickest gamers on tour who will get plenty of balls again that usually 99 per cent of gamers on tour do not, and he shocked me with some passing photographs, notably within the second set.”
But nobody has been able to beat Djokovic twice in succession in the same season since Dominic Thiem five years ago, and de Minaur wasn’t quite up to that fiendish task, failing to become the first Aussie semi-finalist in Monte Carlo since John Alexander in 1979.
Two-time winner Djokovic, back in the Monte Carlo semis for the first time since 2015, will meet either Casper Ruud or Ugo Humbert in Saturday’s semis.
Earlier, Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner overcame stern resistance from Holger Rune to make the semis for the second straight year and set up a mouth-watering battle with two-time champion Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Rune saved two match points en route to winning the second-set tiebreaker, but Sinner responded to win 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 for his 25th win in 26 matches in 2024.
Tsitsipas eased into the last-four by defeating Karen Khachanov 6-4 6-2, and looked in fine form as he declared: “I might lie if I mentioned it does not carry good reminiscences stepping out on this court docket.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
