Rome (AFP)

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic qualified for the semi-finals of the Masters 1000 in Rome, of which he is the title holder, on Saturday after a Homeric battle against Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (No. 5) 4-6 , 7-5, 7-5.

The Serbian drew on his best shots and his rage to win to reverse a meeting the Greek had in hand when it was interrupted by rain on Friday night, with a set and a break in advance (6-4, 2- 1).

"It feels like we played two games, and in fact that's what we did ... Yesterday he played better, he also started better today. It was probably my game on most difficult of the year ", admitted" Nole ", who, after the victory of Rafael Nadal on Friday against Alexander Zverev, shows that the" old ones "still have energy to spare against the rising generation.

Sacred five times in Rome (in ten finals), Djokovic will be back at the end of the afternoon on the center court to play his semi-final against the Italian Lorenzo Sonego (33rd in the world), striker of Andrey Rublev (N.7) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Faced with a Tsitsipas returned with the same accuracy as on Friday, the Serbian had to fight to get back into the match very quickly, which he did by breaking down to equalize at 4-4 in the second set.

The battle then became daunting, with an avalanche of break points saved on each side, as it had been last fall in the semi-finals of Roland Garros with a victory for the Serbian in five sets.

Tsitsipas pulled out all the stops on his serve and dismissed set points one after the other, but he finally had to abdicate on the fourth, to the delight of the audience delighted to be offered a third set.

"Nole" was on the verge of breaking up again early in the third, losing his serve (to 1-1) and then sending his racquet violently waltzing, earning him a warning.

But once again, the world No.1 found the resources to come back, saving no less than four 4-1 balls in favor of the Greek on his next service game!

The luck of Tsitsipas, who has never beaten the Serbian on clay in three confrontations, was over.

Drawing on all the panoply, from the service to the amortizations, Djokovic finished strongest to win in 3:15.

"It was a bit of luck, mental strength and the right tactical choices at the right time", summed up the Serbian, without dreading the second meeting scheduled at the end of the day: "I did not play so many matches this year, I don't feel exhausted ".

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