Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates winning his quarterfinal match against Karen Khachanov of Russia. , Photo Credit: Reuters
Novak Djokovic came back from a set down for the first time in the tournament to beat Karen Khachanov 4-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-4 at the French Open on Tuesday to reach his 45th career Grand Slam. Went. Slam Semifinals.
Roger Federer holds the men’s record of 46 appearances in the last four of a major.
Wins over 11th seed Khachanov, a semifinalist at the US Open last September and the Australian Open this January, saw Djokovic enter that round for the 12th time at Roland Garros. Only Rafael Nadal has done it more times, with 15 semifinals, He had arthroscopic hip surgery last week and is sitting out this edition of the clay-court major.
No. 3 seed Djokovic is now waiting to see whether he will next take on No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz. Alcaraz, who beat Djokovic on clay at the Madrid Masters last year, was to face No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the last men’s quarterfinal on Tuesday night.
No. 2 seeds Aryna Sabalenka and unseeded Karolina Muchova both reached their first women’s semifinals in Paris with wins earlier in the day.
Sabalenka, the defending Australian Open champion, ousted Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-4, then appeared at a news conference for the first time in nearly a week. Muchova defeated 2021 runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-2.
Djokovic is a two-time champion in Paris, in 2016 and 2021, and is seeking a 23rd Grand Slam trophy overall, which would break a tie with Nadal for the men’s record.
Prior to facing Khachanov, Djokovic had claimed all 12 sets played in the tournament. But he admitted to coming out “quite sluggish, pretty slow” on Tuesday.
The second set was also not ideal. At least until the tiebreaker. That was when Djokovic called his play “a few levels higher”.
Well, this is an understatement.
He didn’t make a mistake, didn’t miss a point. In fact, he’s gone 5-0 in tiebreakers over the past week-plus, and he hasn’t committed an unforced error in any of those 47 points.
The dominance continued in the third set as well. He flubbed a backhand on the 10th point of the opening game. But then didn’t commit an unforced error the rest of that set, compiling 19 winners in that span.
Things looked to go completely their way in the fourth as well, taking a 4-2 lead. But when he played a shaky game that ended with a double-fault, suddenly it was 4-all.
“A little bit scared,” Djokovic said afterwards.
And then? Well, Djokovic returned to that perfect version of himself, collecting the last eight points – breaking at love, then holding at love.
“You’re not going to have your victory handed to you,” Djokovic said.