Pursuing his record-breaking seventh title at the Miami Open, No. 4 seed Novak Djokovic took down No. 24 seed Sebastian Korda 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Thursday in a quarterfinal match postponed from Wednesday.
Djokovic, who became the oldest ATP Masters 1000 semifinalist at 37 years and 10 months, will face No. 14 seed Grigor Dimitrov in the semifinals. Djokovic is 12-1 against the Bulgarian.
Dominating in the opening set with his first serve, Djokovic won 94 percent of those serves and closed out the set by winning the final 12 points. In the one-hour, 22-minute match, he won 84 percent of his first-serve points and made 83 percent of his first serves.
“As good as one can feel about his serve,” said Djokovic, who is tied with Andre Agassi for most Miami Open titles. “Unbelievable serving the whole tournament, I’ve been serving really well. Especially today and I needed it because Sebastian in the second set was just making me run and he was playing really well from the back of the court, maybe not making as many errors like in the first set.”
Korda bounced back in the set, grabbing a 3-0 lead and serving to tie the match while up 5-3. But Djokovic forced his American opponent into mistakes and eventually tied the set at 5. Korda had another shot to win the set up 6-5, but Djokovic again rallied before closing out the match in the tiebreaker.
In another quarterfinal on Thursday, unseeded Czech Jakub Mensik upended No. 17 seed Arthur Fils of France 7-6 (5), 6-1 to reach his first ATP Masters 1000 semifinal.
Mensik, 19, jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the opening set, but Fils rallied to force a tiebreaker. After breaking Fils twice in the tiebreaker, Mensik cruised in the second to close out the one-hour, 17-minute match.
“It feels incredible. I think the biggest result so far in my career, so I’m glad I just kept going since the first round,” said Mensik, who totaled 13 aces, saved two of three break points and won 86 percent of his first-serve points. “That’s the key, to keep the focus during the two weeks, because it’s always tough. The job is not done.”
Mensik will play No. 3 seed Taylor Fritz, who beat No. 29 seed Matteo Berrettini of Italy 7-5, 6-7 (7), 7-5 on Thursday.
Berrettini rallied from a 6-3 deficit to win the second set. Fritz had two match points at 6-5 before letting that set slip away. But the San Diego native found his way to a third-set victory and his sixth ATP Masters 1000 semifinal — his first in Miami.
“There’s two options,” Fritz said. “Get frustrated, lose, then be even more frustrated about all the chances I blew. Or regroup and get the win. Now I can sleep tonight and not be so mad at the chances I blew.”
–Field Level Media
