World number one Novak Djokovic on Thursday suffered a massive scare but battled back from a set down to beat Pablo Carreno Busta in the quarterfinals of the French Open 2020 at Roland Garros.
Djokovic prevailed in a 4-set thriller against 15th-ranked Spaniard 4-6 6-2 6-3 6-4 at centre court to set up a semi-final showdown against Greek fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.
This was Djokovic’s 36th win of the year, with his only loss coming against the same opponent at the US Open in round 4 when the Serbian defaulted for accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball after a game and was disqualified from the match.
But there was no such drama or controversy on Thursday as Djokovic remained on course for a second championship in Paris and 18th Grand Slam title overall. He certainly seems to have moved past that episode, winning all 10 matches he’s played since.
He wore a bandage on his neck Wednesday and had problems with his left arm that seemed to ease after he was massaged by a trainer during changeovers.
Djokovic looked flat and had to save break points early in the second set before raising his game to level the match.
It looked plain sailing when he led 3-0 in the third set before a dip allowed Carreno Busta back but Djokovic saved a break point at 3-3 before pulling away.
Djokovic, bidding for a second French Open crown, produced several loud roars as he tried to fire himself up.
Carreno Busta hung on gamely but Djokovic was superior in the big moments and one break in the fourth was enough to close out the match in 3 hours and 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, Tsitsipas won the other men’s quarterfinal against No. 13 Andrey Rublev 7-5 6-2 6-3 on Wednesday.
Before the quarter-final on Court Philippe Chatrier, the 13th-seeded Rublev had won both previous tour-level meetings against fellow 22-year-old Tsitsipas with their last encounter less than two weeks ago in the final in Hamburg.
The Russian looked set to keep his record intact as he served for the first set at 5-4 but Tsitsipas, who also reached the semi-finals at last year’s Australian Open, then won three straight games to take the opener.
Tsitsipas did not look back from there and broke his opponent three more times in the next two sets to win the game.