Novak Djokovic battles past Marcos Baghdatis into final four – Davidoff Swiss Indoors 2011
Top seeded Serb Novak Djokovic bounced back to earn a three setter victory over Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors 2011, an ATP World Tour 500 series event taking place at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Austria.
He registered a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over the 26-year-old Cypriot to secure a semi-final spot on Friday.
World number one Djokovic proved his class after making an epic comeback from a set down to earn a three setter victory. Duelling for the sixth time, the Serb not only extended his lead by 6-0 in the head-to-head series against
Baghdatis but also reached the last four.
The Cypriot blasted into the Basel’s indoor hard courts and broke the top notch Serbian’s serve in the opening game to have an initial edge. He then swiped in entire serves and broke Djokovic’s serve again in the seventh game to
seal the victory with a 6-2 score line. Baghdatis encountered zero breakpoint and converted two out of three breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
The Monaco resident, Djokovic re-gathered his strength and stroke with a different strategy in the second set. His gamble paid off as the Serb reeled off last four games to clinch the equaliser with a 6-2 win. He faced zero breakpoint
and cashed in both breakpoint chances to his advantage.
24-year-old Serb kept momentum rolling into the final set and quickly pocketed entire serves without facing any breakpoint. In addition to this, he capitalised on the only breakpoint chance to his advantage in the second game to
seal the decider with a 6-3 success.
Djokovic stayed on course for his eleventh year-to-date title after earning this impressive victory. He capitalised fully on the seven double faults and several unforced errors the Cypriot committed and registered an impressive
70 percent win on his higher first serve share.
"A win is a win," said the blissful Djokovic. "It was a close match. I’ve got to give credit to him because he played really well. He served throughout the whole match really well. I managed to get a couple of crucial breaks towards
the end of the second and start of the third set and I think that decided the match.”
Up next for the exceptional Serb is the rising star, Kei Nishikori of Japan.
The Japanese said about his epic clash with the top seed, "Djokovic is playing unbelievable this year. He doesn't have many weaknesses, so I will need to play a bit more aggressive than usual and play my best tennis to beat him."
Nishikori required two hours and forty minutes to battle past Kazakhstani lucky loser Mikhail Kukushkin on their first meeting.
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