Novak Djokovic hangs on to reach 11th Australian Open semis،
MELBOURNE, Australia — Novak Djokovic is returning to the Australian Open where he has never been beaten.
The 10-time champion held off Taylor Fritz 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in 3 3/4 hours Tuesday to reach the Australian Open semifinals for 11th times.
He won all 10 semi-finals he played at Melbourne Park as well as all 10 finals.
In his record 48th Grand Slam semi-final, he will face No. 4 seed Jannik Sinner or No. 5 Andrey Rublev. They started their quarter-final at 10:42 p.m.
Djokovic has spent more time on court so far over five rounds than ever before at Melbourne Park – more than 15 hours – but believes he is still getting there. He's on a 33-match winning streak at the Australian Open – a tournament record he shared with his childhood inspiration, Monica Seles – so he should know.
The first match lasted 16 minutes and the first set lasted 1 hour and 24 minutes. Fritz got the first break of serve, and Djokovic said he was behind at times until the third set.
“The credit goes to him for playing really well. You could see he had a clear game plan. He was really sharp,” Djokovic said. “It was really difficult for me to play the first two sets.
“In the third, things started to get better. I started to pass the ball better. I started to feel better on the court. Serving too. I didn't serve well at all in the first two sets, then in the third and fourth sets. , great.”
Fritz saved the first 15 break points he faced, an incredible statistic against one of the best returners of all time.
“My conversion was really bad but in the end I managed to break him when it counted,” Djokovic said. “I improved my game in the middle of the third set, until the end.”
The match began in bright sunshine and heat of nearly 32 degrees (90 degrees Fahrenheit), and the shadow moved from west to east across the field behind the referee's chair.
The first match sets the tone for a long and difficult match. It contained 24 points, going to twice nine. Fritz repelled three break points before finally holding.
Then follows the longest first set of the tournament.
After Fritz held on in the 11th game, Djokovic fidgeted during the changeover and gestured to get the attention of his support team, calling for salts.
But after holding and taking the set to the tiebreaker, Djokovic finished a 21-shot rally with a stunning crosscourt backhand winner to secure five set points. He put his finger to his ear, nodded and blew a kiss toward a commentary box at the back of the field.
It was Fritz who got the first break of serve to open the second set, after stopping eight in the first set against him.
He saved seven more break chances in the second, mostly with clean winners, and kept the break tied at one set apiece, closing with an ace.
After all this resistance, Fritz was broken in the second game of the third set when Djokovic converted his 16th opportunity. Djokovic broke again, for love, in the ninth game to conclude the third set in 38 minutes.
In the fourth, Fritz struggled to hold on in a game that contained 14 points, then was broken in the sixth. He immediately fought back, converting his second break point with a forehand that clipped the net and dropped for a winner.
But Djokovic denied any further twists by coming back to 5-3 and serving.
Fritz said he played some of his best tennis to save all the break points, but Djokovic kept lifting: “He's so fast. He doesn't really miss a lot of balls. It's also the lack of free points it gives you.
“There's a drop… it was two sets, but, I mean, I played four sets in that time,” Fritz added. “It's hard to maintain that level for probably two, three more hours that I needed when I haven't really had the opportunity to play at that level and play against that level as often.”
Djokovic had beaten Fritz in straight sets in all but one of their previous eight meetings, including the quarterfinals of last year's US Open. The exception was here in Australia in 2021, where it increased to five.
