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Wimbledon (UK) (AFP) – Novak Djokovic, six-time Wimbledon champion and defending champion, got into his eighth final of the great tournament on grass this Friday, where the controversial Australian Nick Kyrgios awaits him after benefiting from the abandonment due to injury of the Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal.
The Serbian defeated Britain’s Cameron Norrie 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in two hours and 34 minutes on the center court of London’s ‘All England Club’, qualifying for his 32nd Grand Slam final .
Djokovic, however, began the match seemingly unfocused, making unusual mistakes against the 26-year-old British number one, ranked 12th in the world.
The Serb suffered three service breaks in the first set before taking control of the match.
Norrie “played better in the first set,” he later admitted, acknowledging that in a semi-final “there is always pressure, from yourself and from outside.” And considering the advantage of the Briton with “nothing to lose” and “playing at home”.
Djokovic quickly lost the first set and had a hard time finding solutions against the British game until the eighth game of the second set, when he managed to break his serve.
Norrie was on his way to quickly make up lost ground, but hesitated for a moment and immediately the world number 3 took the opportunity to take the second moto.
Starting in the third set, Djokovic was himself again, turning his defenses into attacks and taking the reins against the Briton who, despite his great return, failed to recover, multiplying unforced errors due to haste.
Kyrgios, great game and many tricks
Djokovic has an impressive balance in Wimbledon finals, where he has only lost one, in 2013, of the seven he has played.
He is now seeking his fourth consecutive Grand Slam title on grass – the tournament was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic – to join the exclusive club made up of Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer.
But for this he will have to overcome the dangerous game and the usual tricks of Kyrgios, who qualified automatically on Thursday when Nadal announced that he could not continue due to an abdominal injury.
“Hopefully experience works in my favor,” said Djokovic, who at 35 years old will seek his 21st victory in a Grand Slam against the 40th-ranked tennis player in the world, who has never played in a final of these major tournaments.
The 27-year-old Australian is a subscriber to controversy.
In addition to refusing to have a coach and not participating in many of the year’s tournaments, he has given much to talk about his behavior on the courts.
In the third round of Wimbledon he starred in a very tense match against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, who lost his temper due to the “circus” of comments and complaints from Kyrgios and ended up throwing a ball in the direction of the public and another off the wall.
Both players were booked and fined for their behavior.
Tsitsipas branded him a “bully” with “a devilish side”, but the Australian has since shown a more measured attitude.
“I hope your recovery goes well and we all hope to see you in good health soon,” he wished Nadal in an Instagram message.
“Obviously you never want to see someone like that, so important to the sport, go down with an injury like that,” he told a news conference on Friday.
“I am sure that I will play with him again on a big stage,” he added, assuring that “everyone wanted to see us go to war” on the Wimbledon grass.
That battle will now have to be played by the Australian against one of the tennis players who has won the most at the ‘All England Club’ and who is looking for his 21st Grand Slam title to get just one behind Nadal.
The Serbian also has the motivation that this will probably be his last Grand Slam tournament of the year, since without being vaccinated against covid-19 he will not be able to travel to the United States to play the US Open.
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