Novak Djokovic made his third straight recovery to make it into the Dubai Open final and maintain his hopes of retaining an ATP World Tour title for the first time in his career on Friday.
The world No. 2 from Serbia came from a set and a break down in the semi-final against Marcos Baghdatis, the former Australian Open finalist from Cyprus, to win 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 6-4 without ever playing at his best.
The defending champion had stamina and fight, however, and it was those qualities that had enabled him to recover from a set down against both Viktor Troicki and Ivan Ljubicic in previous rounds and to get through a second set in which, despite the score, he was constantly on the brink of trouble.
PHOTO:AFP
“I played bad again today,” said Djokovic, with harsh candor. “I was struggling with my serve. When you don’t have an advantage with your serve it’s difficult to play against Marcos, who is very aggressive. There are some tournaments when you don’t feel well and you don’t feel great, and still manage to win. This was one, so I am fortunate to get through. I think people could see my frustration. It’s not easy — you don’t want to know what happens inside my head.”
That frustration first found expression as early as the third game when Djokovic began to smack himself repeatedly on the thigh and occasionally to swing his arms in irritation.
Later, he hit his foot so hard with his racket that one feared that he would injure himself. Then as the first set tie-break began to get away from him, he hurled his racket fiercely down.
PHOTO: AFP
His problem was that Baghdatis was prepared to play a cagey game of physical chess, before choosing a favorable situation in which to open up with his bigger weapons and in the lengthier rallies sometimes Djokovic’s ground-stroking rhythm let him down.
Worse still, in the second set Djokovic lost some confidence in his serve, losing a service game to fall behind again at 1-2, and remarkably, slipping to break-point down in three other service games. Fortunately for him, Baghdatis was unable to produce his most telling weapons on any of the big points. Six chances to make a second break of serve were spurned by the unseeded player and twice Baghdatis had game-points on his own serve that he did not convert.
When Djokovic got his nose in front for the first time by breaking for 2-1 in the final set and consolidating for 3-1, he began to feel he might make his third successive escape, though it was always a struggle for the champion.
PHOTO: AFP
Several times Djokovic bounced the ball more then 20 times before delivering his serve and must have been close to the 25-second limit beyond which a code violation warning is imposed.
His deliberation paid off, however, and despite a total of 10 double-faults and winning less than half the points behind his second delivery, he closed it out in a final game in which Baghdatis had the crowd screaming louder and louder with two appeals to the Hawkeye replay system.
Djokovic now plays Mikhail Youzhny, to whom he lost two weeks ago in the Rotterdam semi-finals and who reached his second final in succession with a 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) win over Jurgen Melzer.
■MEXICAN OPEN
AP, ACAPULCO, MEXICO
David Ferrer defeated Fernando Gonzalez 6-7 (4/7), 6-0, 6-4 on Friday to set up a Mexican Open final against best friend and fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Ferrero won his semi-final over Juan Monaco of Argentina. Ferrero took the first set 7-5 and advanced when Monaco retired with a rib injury.
It will be repeat of an ATP final a week ago in Buenos Aires, where Ferrero defeated Ferrer for his second straight title on the Latin American swing.
The decider in Acapulco could make it three.
Monaco was leading the opening set 5-4 when he took an injury time-out to treat an injury to the left side of his ribcage. He returned to the court and lost the next three games, handing the set to Ferrero 7-5, and then retired.
Monaco said he felt the pain when he was leading 3-1 and it got worse, forcing him to seek treatment.
He described it as a rib injury and said it was likely to keep him out of Argentina’s Davis Cup tie in Sweden on March 3. He didn’t know what caused it and said he had never had a similar problem.
Argentina are already without injured David Nalbandian and Juan Martin del Potro.
On the women’s side, top-seeded Venus Williams reached the final, defeating Romanian Edina Gallovits 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.
Defending champion Williams will face eighth-seeded Polona Hercog in the final.
Williams is aiming for her second straight title on the WTA Tour.
She’s also won 42 WTA events, the most by an active player.
Hercog defeated Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 7-5 and will be playing in her first WTA final.
Gallovits, ranked only 164 to Williams’ No. 5, made few mistakes early, but seemed to lose concentration in the final set when Williams began to hit the corners with serves and ground-strokes.
Hercog, 19, who was also playing in her first tour semi-final, hammered the ball into the stands after the match to celebrate.
■DELRAY BEACH
AFP, DELRAY BEACH, FLORIDA
Second-seeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic booked his first semi-final berth of the year on Friday, downing seventh-seeded James Blake.
Karlovic beat Blake 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-1 to set up a clash with defending champion Mardy Fish. Fish beat fourth-seeded Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-3.
Karlovic lived up to his big-serving reputation with 23 aces against Blake.
Unseeded Ernests Gulbis of Latvia and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland also advanced.
The 72nd-ranked Gulbis beat Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 7-6 (7/2) 6-4 to reach his second semi-final in as many weeks.
Gulbis saved a set-point when Mayer was serving at 5-4 in the first set and said hanging on to win the opening set was key.
“I think if I would lose the first set, I would lose the match,” Gulbis said. “I really had to push myself to move. That was crucial for me to win the set, mentally.”
Nieminen battled to beat third-seeded Benjamin Becker of Germany 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (7/5).
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