Top seed Novak Djokovic remains on course to claiming his 34th Masters 1000 title after disposing of France’s Lucas Pouille in straight sets at the Western and Southern Open.
The world No.1 required just under 90 minutes to defeat Pouille 7-6(2), 6-1, in their quarter-final encounter on Friday. Djokovic, who is the defending champion in Cincinnati, remained unbroken throughout the match as he dropped only five points behind his first serve. Furthermore, the 16-time grand slam champion hit 17 winners to 15 unforced errors on route to claiming his 63rd quarter-final win at a Masters tournament.
“I thought he played really well throughout the first set,” Cincinnatti.com quoted Djokovic as saying after. “We both held our service games quite comfortably to the tiebreak and I just stayed in there very focused, didn’t drop my level, he did – double-faulted, missed a couple of forehands and that cost him the tiebreak and after that, beginning of the second set I knew it was very important to try to break his serve right away and get into an advantage and I managed to finish off the match really well.”
Whilst the match appeared straightforward on paper, there was also a scare for Djokovic during the second set. The Serbian halted proceedings in order to have a medical time out. Telling the trainer, he felt ‘tightness’ in his right elbow. Djokovic missed a chunk of the 2017 season due to his elbow and has previously undergone surgery on it. However, there is no indication that his latest issue is anything substantial.
“I had some tightness, especially on my serve, and managed to finish the match which is great, but the pain is there so hopefully I’ll have no pain tomorrow (Saturday),” said Djokovic.
The next test for the Serbian will be the rapidly rising Daniil Medvedev. A player who has won 12 out of 14 matches since Wimbledon and was runner-up to Rafael Nadal at the Rogers Cup last week. Medvedev brushed aside Roger Federer’s conqueror Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-3, in his quarter-final match.
Djokovic lost to Medvedev earlier this year on the clay at the Monte Carlo Masters. However, he leads their overall head-to-head 3-1.
“Novak is Novak. There is actually nothing to say about him. Just huge respect.” Medvedev said during his press conference.
“I think he probably wants his revenge, wants to show it’s him the No. 1 in the world, which he is.’
“It’s going to be a great semifinal.”
Should Djokovic win his next match, it would be his 39th on the tour this season. Placing him joint-third for most matches won this season along with Federer.
