After losing in the semifinals of the 2022 Madrid Open, Novak Djokovic will have another chance to advance to the final of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament at the Italian Open in Rome.
20-time Grand Slam champion, Novak Djokovic is getting back to his top form after missing the most of the 2022 season. After previously defeating Aslan Karatsev and Stan Wawrinka without losing a set, it appeared that Novak Djokovic is comfortable on tennis court once again and he proved that in the quarterfinals of the 2022 Italian Open against Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Both players started with solid play on their own service games, as the young Canadian was the first one to have a breakpoint in the fifth game of the first set. After he failed to use his chance, Djokovic then broke his serve in the eighth game and was serving for the set in the ninth. However, he lost 7 points in a row and the scoreboard showed 5-5.
Djokovic then did the same thing and won the first set 7-5 in 53 minutes. In the second set, it was the Serbian who was the first player to have a breakpoint, and after failing to convert the first three in the sixth game, he eventually used the fourth one to gain a swift 4-2 lead.
In the very next game, he faced two breakpoints that Auger-Aliassime worked his way towards, but current world no. 1 stayed calm and led 5-3. In the next game, he even had a matchpoint on the Canadian's serve, but failed to convert it.
It was Auger-Aliassime who then broke Djokovic back and didn't let him finish his match on serve. The set then reached the tie-break, where the Serbian prevailed to win the match 7-5, 6-3 and set up a semifinal at the 2022 Italian Open against Casper Ruud. Djokovic will also keep his world no. 1 spot in the ATP Rankings ahead of Daniil Medvedev who will return in Geneva.
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