Djokovic gets loose and advances
He experiences aches and pains early, then rolls to French Open semis for 10th time.
PARIS — The first obvious sign of trouble for Novak Djokovic came when he stepped out into Court Philippe Chatrier with a rather large square of beige athletic tape on the back of his neck.
The next indication came on the first point of his French Open quarterfinal against Pablo Carreño Busta, when Djokovic let a ball toss drop and abandoned his serve midmotion.
Soon enough, Djokovic was f lexing and stretching his left arm or hitting it with his racket. Off to a slow start Wednesday night, Djokovic received massages from a trainer, righted himself and beat Carreño Busta 4- 6, 6- 2, 6- 3, 6- 4 to reach the semifinals at Roland Garros for the 10th time.
“I definitely didn’t feel great coming into the court today. A few things happened in the warmup,” the No. 1- ranked Djokovic said, without going into specifics.
“I had some neck issues and some shoulder issues. I’ll just say that. I mean, I don’t want to get really too much into it. Obviously I’m still in the tournament, so I don’t want to reveal too much. I’m feeling OK,” said Djokovic, who will face No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in Friday’s semifinals. “As the match progressed, I warmed up my body, and the pain kind of faded away. It allowed me to play better and better and feel better.”
Djokovic is right- handed, but he uses his left arm for his two- fisted backhand. Whatever impediment there was to his play, whatever the pain level might have been, the issue was, at the very least, a distraction.
Carreño Busta, for his part, had at least a bit of doubt about what was going on.
This was a rematch from the U. S. Open last month, when Djokovic was defaulted for inadvertently hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball he smacked in anger. That went into the books as a loss and remains the only blemish on Djokovic’s 36- 1 record in 2020.
Djokovic has won all 10 matches he’s played since. He hadn’t ceded a set at Roland Garros until Wednesday.
Now he’ll get a day to recuperate as he seeks a second title in Paris and 18th Grand Slam trophy.
No. 2 Rafael Nadal faces No. 12 Diego Schwartzman in the other semifinal Friday. Nadal eyes a 13th championship at the French Open, which would give him 20 majors overall, equaling Roger Federer’s record for men; Schwartzman never has played in a Slam semifinal.
In the women’s semifinals Thursday, it’ll be Sofia Kenin versus Petra Kvitova, and Iga Swiatek versus Nadia Podoroska.
Tsitsipas, 22, reached his f irst French Open semifinal with a 7- 5, 6- 2, 6- 3 victory over 13th- seeded Andrey Rublev, taking control after trailing in the f irst set with a run of f ive consecutive games, and 11 of 13.