Italian Open - The Semi-Finals

Yesterday the rain disrupted the match between Novak Djocovik and Stefanos Tsitsipas, twice. The last match between Andrei Rublev and Lorenzo Sonego had to be postponed.

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Novak Djokovic vs Stefanos Tsitsipas (4-6)(7-5)(7-5)

Today the match between Novak Djocovik and Stefanos Tsitsipas was resumed today at noon and was absolutely amazing. Those who are following tennis regularly already knew it's going to be exciting and we got what we expected as far as intensity goes. The result is another matter.

For me this was a match that could have gone either way. Even though Djokovic is No. 1 at the moment, he's not unbeatable. Today he started out with a weak first set, letting his opponent win to 4-6. This was not a clear sign that he's not capable of winning as it's happened before. He lost the first set in several occasions, to recover in the next two sets. It happens to all the big names.

The second set was intense. none of them was better than the other one, or should I say they were both good. They both made mistakes, Djokovic made 5 double faults, which is not like him at all and was clearly in difficulty, frustrated several times. I haven't seen him like this, I guess ever.

At the end he was better or just lucky, I don't know what to say but it wasn't easy to win against Tsitsipas.

Lorenzo Sonego vs Andrey Rublev (3-6)(6-4)(6-3)

This match should have taken place yesterday but was postponed due to bad weather. It looked interesting from the start as the two players are from the same generation and both quite good, even though Sonego wasn't among the top seeds.

The Italian had a huge advantage as playing at home always better, they say. What can I say, the public was obviously rooting for him and he used it to his advantage, but was also better than the Russian.

Rublev is a very good player but he was struggling today, literally struggling. He managed to win the first set as Sonego needed some time to find the rhythm, but after that, what he did was amazing.

Italy has invested quite a lot in tennis, both in players and in courts, tournaments. They have 10 players in ATP top 100, 4 of them in top 50.

So at this point Djokovic and Sonego are in semi-finals. They both have a match to play today, or better yet the match is on as I'm writing the post. Playing two tough matches one day is not an easy task and now they are playing against each other.

The two met once before, last year and the result was kind of shameful for the Serbian as he was defeated to (6-2)(6-1). I saw the match and had the feeling that Djokovic lost deliberately as I saw no effort on his behalf. It was the end of the season, he had his ranking secured and had no reason to fight. It was unethical but he's world No. 1, he thinks he can do that.

Now this is another matter, the season is not over and he has to win to get into the final, where he will play against Rafa Nadal. Let's see if he can beat Sonego. Thee Italian has nothing to lose, so he most likely will put up a fight.