1 Response to rg20djokovic_tsitsipas

1. Voo de Mar says:

   June 12, 2021 at 7:33 pm

   Points won by each set: | 33-26, 32-24, 37-40, 39-41, 31-18 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   24 % Djokovic – 38 of 153
   19 % Tsitsipas – 32 of 168

   The first Roland Garros semifinal played under the floodlights, and a great one for more than three hours. # In terms of the progress it was almost a copy of [1] Djokovic’s semifinal he had won on the same court five years before: the opening two sets relatively easy for him, then he was close to finish the contest in 3 or 4 sets, but needed to patiently wait for his opponent wilting to finish him off in the decider with no trouble. What’s quite peculiar about the ’20 semifinal, it’s the streak of games won when at least one ‘deuce’ was required: the Serb won the first 8 games of this kind (until he led 5:4 in the 3rd set), then Tsitsipas [6] won another 8 ‘deuce’ games, and his streak was broken in the last game of the match. So Djokovic should have won it 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 and the scoreline couldn’t indicate that the match was much tighter – among those 8 ‘deuce’ games the Greek lost, in three of them he led 40/0 (first in the opening game of the match as a receiver, then as a server twice in the 2nd set). Djokovic had a match point serving at 5:4 when he missed a backhand down the line on the 11th stroke of the rally trying to finish with a winner. That point turned the things around, and for more than an hour Tsitsipas was winning all the tighter games, in the 4th set he survived three consecutive games facing break points, including a mini-match point at 4-all (he hit an ace down the T – the direction in which he obtains the fewest points as a server, actually it’s his Achilles’ heel in my opinion). Djokovic was overusing dropshots, he played around 40 of them in the match, but this tactics paid off in the end – Tsitsipas held to begin the decider withstanding another break point, but in that game he rushed to Djokovic’s three dropshots, and on two occasions he was lobbed to chase the ball again… that game took his legs away (just his sixth five-setter, 2-4 record afterwards), and in the last six games of the match, he couldn’t normally run, the last three games it was an execution.

   Serve & volley: Djokovic 0, Tsitsipas 2/2

   # Comparison of Djokovic’s similar French Open semifinals:
   2015: Djokovic d. Murray 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 5-7, 6-1… 4 hours 9 minutes… Total points: 154-136… 4 and 4 points away to win in 3 or 4 sets
   2020: Djokovic d. Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-2, 5-7, 4-6, 6-1… 3 hours 54 minutes… Total points: 172-149… 1 and 5 points away to win in 3 or 4 sets
   

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