Djokovic defeats Gasquet to advance to 4th Wimbledon Final

 

By Tia Ko

In the first semi-final of the day Novak Djokovic took only two hours and twenty one minutes to beat the 21^st seeded Richard Gasquet 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4 after serving up a 40-love game and hitting a forehand cross court to finish off the Frenchman.

During the post-match interview, Djokovic was asked if he thinks he’s living the dream having made it to another Grand Slam final. He responded saying, “Yes, I’m living the dream; being here at Wimbledon, I’m playing on the best tennis court in the world. It’s a great honor and privilege to be out there and I have to keep going. The final of Wimbledon is the most watched tennis match in the world of course a lot is at stake but I’ll be ready for it.”

The opening set started off with an early break of serve giving Djokovic a 2-0 lead. Luckily, Gasquet was able to get the break back by firing a backhand winner. Both players held serve until 6-6 but eventually a sloppy tiebreak from Gasquet gave Djokovic the first set. The following two sets started the same with Djokovic easily breaking Gasquet; unfortunately, this time the Frenchman was unable to break back and the world number one ran off winning them 6-4, 6-4 including a love game to end it with triple match point.

Djokovic has improved his net play and movement tremendously with the help of his coach Boris Becker. He would often sneak up as a new part of his game and ended up winning 26 of his 39 trips to the net. The defending champ also broke down Gasquet’s forehand causing many errors from the right side of the court.

When asked who Djokovic thinks he’ll be playing in the final against on Sunday he dodged the question and said, “We will see, I cannot foresee the future but I’ll enjoy [Federer and Murray’s] match.”

 In a poll of 216 people, Djokovic was predicted to win with 91% of the votes leaving only 19 people believing in the underdog. I, too, didn’t believe Gasquet had a shot at beating Djokovic; it just didn’t seem possible. Novak is at the top of his game and it will take a genius to beat him in Sunday’s final… Will Roger Federer be the one to do just that?