Gabriela Sabatini’s countryman, Juan Martin Del Potro, has beaten Novak Djokovic in the semi finals of the BNP Paribas open and has made his way into the title round. Del Potro won the match by 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
This was Djokovic’s first defeat in the ongoing season. He had won 22 matches on the trot before this match.
It was not a one sided encounter. Both the players had their chances, but, towards the end, it was Del Potro who played calmly and managed to get better of the no. 1 player in the world.
Del Potro had reached the semi finals by securing a victory over Andy Murray who is the no. 3 player in the world. So, his confidence was quite high before the match against Djokovic. However, he didn’t start well and lost the opening set, which triggered a betting bonus for fans, as well as pushing the odds of a Del Potro win further out.
But, in the second set, Del Potro came back into the match with some bludgeoning shots. He broke Djokovic’s serve thrice in the set and won it by 6-4 to extend the match into the third set.
In the final set, Del Potro again got into trouble. He was trailed by 3-0 at one point of time and it seemed that Djokovic would run away with this deciding set. But, Del Potro had other ideas. He broke Djokovic’s serve in the 5th game and then, he held his serve in the 6th game to make the scores 3-3.
Del Potro again had a breakpoint in the 9th game and he capitalized on that to take a lead of 5-4. A breakthrough was necessary for Djokovic in the next game, but, the Serbian couldn’t do that. Del Potro calmly held his serve in the 10th game and finished the match.
In the final match, Del Potro will face Rafael Nadal.