Rome (AFP)

Novak Djokovic, far from being calm on clay ahead of Roland-Garros, struggled on Saturday to reach the semi-finals of the Masters 1000 in Rome, against Dominik Koepfer, from qualifying.

Two weeks after his disqualification at the US Open for a gesture of humor, the world No. 1, frustrated at having let himself be drawn into a complicated match, could not contain his annoyance at times.

A racquet thrown violently to the ground paid the price in the second set.

"Let me tell you that this is not the first, nor the last racket that I will break in my career," he replied at a press conference about this episode.

"This is obviously not the best message, especially for young players who watch me, I obviously do not encourage that (...) but when it happens, it happens", he added, blaming himself for having "put himself in a position to have to play a third set" against Koepfer, 97th in the world.

After having already had to work in the eighth against his compatriot Filip Krajinovic, he battled for more than two hours (6-3, 4-6, 6-3) against a player who was playing his seventh game in eight days (qualifying included).

- From the public on Sunday -

A little over a week before Roland-Garros, "Nole" has not yet regained his automatisms on clay at the end of the American tour on hard.

We have seen him make some unusual unforced errors and lose his faceoff four times.

Relaunched by the Serbian's errors after a one-way start to the match, Koepfer then did not let go, pushing Djoko to his limits.

This did not prevent the world No. 1 from reaching the semi-finals in Rome for the 11th time (for 4 titles), saluting as always the empty stands of Foro Italico after his victory.

In the semi-final on Sunday, in front of the thousand spectators who, for the first time, will be allowed in the stands, he will however have to show more consistency against the Norwegian Casper Ruud, 34th in the world.

Ruud, the first Norwegian to reach a semi-final of a Masters 1000, took out the last Italian representative Matteo Berrettini (4-6, 6-3, 7-6), who had yet beaten him two weeks ago in the US Open.

Rafael Nadal, who has no problem finding his marks on clay after his performances this week, plays his quarter-final in the evening against the Argentinian Diego Schwartzman (seeded N.8), a player that the Spaniard masters well (9 victories in 9 confrontations to date).

- Ambitious Halep -

Nadal is in search of his 10th Roman title, before aiming at Roland-Garros for a 20th Grand Slam title to join Roger Federer.

Among the women, Simona Halep would be satisfied with a first title in Italy, after two finals lost in 2017 and 2018.

Qualified for her fifth Roman semi-final, following the abandonment of Kazakhe Yulia Putintseva, the No.1 seed showed his ambitions: "I really want to win this tournament".

History also to extend his good streak in progress of twelve consecutive victories, which had started before the interruption of the competitions because of coronavirus with a title in Dubai in February and has continued since with his title in Prague in August and his three wins this week.

The Romanian had not participated in the hard tournaments in New York in order to better prepare for Roland-Garros.

She will nevertheless have a lot to do in the semi-final against the Spaniard Garbine Muguruza (N.9), who managed to stop the tornado Victoria Arazenka in three rounds.

The 2h20 match was too much for Belarus after their intense American tour (victory at the Masters 1000 in Cincinatti and the final lost at the US Open against Naomi Osaka).

© 2020 AFP