Monte Carlo Masters 1000: Djokovic made history again and Sinner suffered with an intractable Runa who once again fought against everyone

Novak Djokovic AND Jannik Sinner They suffered this Friday but qualified for the semi-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters 1000for the first time since the title in 2015 in the case of the Serbian, and for the second time in a row for the Italian.

“A win is a win and I’m happy to qualify for the semi-finals”the Serbian celebrated immediately after the victory against the Australian Alex De Miñaur (11th in the world) by 7-5 and 6-4.

“Neither of us played at a good level and this gave way to the physical battle”the 36-year-old legend explained.

The statistics confirm his analysis; Djokovic committed 26 unforced errors and 13 winners, while De Minaur committed 28 and 19.

Especially in the second set, of the ten games played, seven ended in breaks: Djokovic held serve twice and De Minaur once. Halfway through the second set the Serbian seems to be suffering physically, especially due to the heat. But he knew how to resist.

With this victory, Nole sets a new record: will play in the 77th Masters 1000 semifinal on Saturdaywhich means one more than Rafael Nadal and eleven more Roger Federer. He already holds the record for titles (40) and finals (58) in this tournament category.

Champion in 2013 and 2015, Since that last title, Djokovic had not made it past the quarterfinals, reaching it twice (2017, 2019).. He will face the Norwegian on Saturday Casper Ruud (10th). The 2022 and 2023 Roland Garros finalist put an end to the Frenchman’s tournament Ugo Umberto (15th) with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.

Sinner resisted a terrible rune

At the bottom of the draw, Jannik Sinner (2nd) found himself behind against Holger Rune (7th), but ended up winning 6-4, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3 in 2h40. “It’s never easy to face Holger so I’m happy to have won, but above all to have raised my level of play a little,” congratulated the Italian.

Last year the Dane beat the Italian in the semi-final. On this occasion Sinner confirmed that he is the man to beat from the start of the 2024 season, sealing his 25th victory in 26 games.

But Rune was about to stop Sinner. So far the Italian has mercilessly dispatched his rivals with powerful goals from both forehand and backhand to end well-constructed sequences, but against Rune Sinner he seemed to be running out of ammunition.

The Italian calmly won the first set, getting a break to take a 3-2 lead. On two occasions in the second set he went up 40-0 while serving Rune, but on both occasions he lacked the initiative and allowed Rune to score 5 points to hold serve.

And at 5-5, Rune put on the mask of terrible child with which he addressed the entire court. After being warned for exceeding the time before serving, he received some boos from the crowd. Rune motioned for the whistlers to be quiet, which only increased the number and volume of the whistles… and the gestures of the Dane himself.

The referee had to intervene and give him a new warning for bad behaviour. Showing no understanding, Rune sat down in the chair and asked the supervisor to intervene. After several minutes, he returned to the match and forced the tiebreaker.

In that decisive match, Sinner got two match points at 6/4, but Rune showed enormous courage to save them and score four consecutive points, taking the Italian to the third set.

In the final set and at 3-3, the crowd felt the need to support Sinner more and the name “Jannik” began to be chanted and the tennis player’s points were applauded loudly.

The winner of the Australian Open then scored three consecutive games to close the match.

The Greek awaits him in the semi-final Stefanos Tsitsipas (N.12), executioner hours before the Russian Karen Khachanov (N.17) 6-4, 6-2.

The 25-year-old Greek, winner of the tournament in 2021 and 2022, was eliminated in the quarter-finals last year and will seek a new final.