Novak Djokovic is into the Serbia Open final for the third time in his career after defeating Karen Khachanov 4-6 6-1 6-2.
The world number one produced a clinical display in the last two sets to oust the Russian and reach the final in Belgrade for the third time in his career.
Djokovic had to come back from a set down for the third consecutive time this week as Khachanov produced some powerful tennis early on.
The Russian’s big hitting mixed with effective point construction proved too strong for Djokovic in the early exchanges as he took an early break lead.
As the set went on, Djokovic found his range as he produced deep powerful returns which caused errors from Khachanov’s racket.
Despite the top seed creating a break point near the end of the set, Khachanov produced some big patterns of play as he served out the opening set in 47 minutes.
However from then on it was all about Djokovic, who’s pin-point accuracy on return as well as serve was too much for Khachanov to handle.
Djokovic roared to the second set in front of an energetic Serbian crowd with power, angles and effortless point construction.
There was very little Khachanov could do as the unforced errors continued to evolve from the world number 26’s racket.
A total of four breaks of serve saw Djokovic into his third Belgrade final and a chance to win his first title of the season.
Djokovic will now take on second seed Andrey Rublev in Sunday’s final after he defeated Fabio Fognini 6-2 6-2 in the other semi-final.
Heading into Sunday’s title decider, Djokovic leads the head-to-head 1-0 with their only meeting coming at the Nitto ATP Finals last year.
