Novak Djokovic on Friday took his place in the Internazionali BNL d’Italia semi-finals with a 7-5, 7-6 (7/1) win over Felix Auger-Aliassime, which guaranteed that he would remain world No. 1 for a 370th week, while in the women’s singles Iga Swiatek stretched her winning streak to 27 matches and Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated in the women’s doubles.
Top seed Djokovic is chasing a sixth title in Rome ahead of Roland Garros later this month and needed more than two hours win a match that featured some magnificent tennis from big-hitting Auger-Aliassime.
Auger-Aliassime of Canada crashed in serves topping 200kph, hitting 11 aces, and showed a wide range of bold shots in his first match against the 20-time Grand Slam winner.
Photo: Reuters
The 21-year-old, who won his first ATP tournament in Rotterdam in February, even went toe-to-toe in rallies with Djokovic, drawing applause from the Serb early in the match with one particularly deft drop-shot.
Djokovic showed touches of class, exemplified by a lob at the end of a rally that broke Auger-Aliassime’s serve in game 6 of the second set to move the 35-year-old 4-2 ahead.
Auger-Aliassime brought the crowd to their feet by fighting back to take the set to a tie-break, where his brave resistance finally met its end.
Photo: AFP
Djokovic was to play Casper Ruud in the semis after press time last night.
Stefanos Tsitsipas made the semis by beating local hero Jannick Sinner 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 in a clash that was stopped for more than 10 minutes at match point after a spectator fell ill.
Tsitsipas was to play Alexander Zverev.
Photo: Reuters
Earlier, Swiatek beat Bianca Andreescu, 7-6 (7/2), 6-0 before winning 6-2, 6-1 in her semi-final yesterday against Aryna Sabalenka, who reached the last-four with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win against Amanda Anisimova.
Ons Jabeur was to play Daria Kasatkina after press time.
In her quarter-final, she bounced back from being a game away from defeat to beat Maria Sakkari 1-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Kasatkina had an easier time after Jil Tiechmann retired injured while the Russian was leading 6-4, 3-2.
In the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles, Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Giuliana Olmos of Mexico defeated Chan and Japanese partner Shuko Aoyama 7-5, 2-6, 10-5.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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