Novak Djokovic takes on Lorenzo Musetti in the second semi final on Friday, hoping to make Sunday’s Championship match for the tenth time. The seven-time champion should be fairly confident of his chances in this one given he already holds a 5-1 record over the Italian so far. Both of their slam matches did go the distance though with Musetti leading 2-1 in sets both times before running out of steam at the end.
Djokovic will be well rested after his quarter final match was cancelled due to Alex de Minaur’s withdrawal. His win over Holger Rune did suggest that he was rounding into form though with the Serbian dominating from start to finish in the fourth round.
Everyone expected there would be one Italian semi finalist at this tournament but few would have thought it would be Musetti rather than Jannik Sinner. It has been a scrappy fortnight for him with seven sets lost on his way to the semi final. Two of them were against Taylor Fritz in the last round although he showed his quality to take out an opponent who was bang in form. “At the start of the match Taylor was really leading the game, especially with his serve and I couldn’t return well. In the second set I had a big reaction after breaking at the start and that changed my mind, my attitude. That probably made the difference and hopefully on Friday I will have the same one.” he said after the 3-6 7-6 6-2 3-6 6-1 win.
Musetti is likely to be shattered after a busy tournament while Djokovic is well rested, having not played since Monday. The matchup suits Djokovic even more on grass, with his serve and return working much better than the Italians. Musetti will look to employ a lot of variety and extend points but must start quickly given his tendency to run out of steam, especially in this matchup.
Prediction – Novak Djokovic in straight sets