Serbian Novak Djokovic won, world No. 1, Hubert Hurkacz of Hungary, 6-3, 6-4 in 1h 21min on Friday in the quarter-finals of the Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid.
Djokovic didn’t seem to budge, and he won his fourth straight match against the Hungarian.
The Serb swallowed the first set in 36 minutes winning 87% of the rallies on his first serve, and he steamrolled to win the second set in 45 minutes.
Hurkacz saved a match point, on his serve, to reduce the score to 5-4, but Djokovic ended the match immediately afterwards.
Djokovic will face in the semi-finals the winner of the long-awaited quarter between Rafael Nadal (no. 4 in the ATP) and Carlos Alcaraz (no. 9 in the world), the star match on the 11th day of the tournament.
Nadal against Alcaraz is the veteran against the child prodigy, with a dazzling season. On the contrary, Nadal was slowed down by another rib injury and he returned to competition in Madrid with the aim of being ready for the French Open which starts at the end of the month.
Nadal has already beaten Alcaraz twice, the last time at Indian Wells earlier this season, but also at Madrid last year on clear scores of 6-2 and 6-1. This fight will have a taste of revenge.
After this good fight to come, it was the turn of Quebecer Félix Auger-Aliassime to glide on Madrid clay against Alexander Zverev.
The German has already won four times against Auger-Aliassime, but the latter has won two of the last three (4-2), including at Wimbledon in 2021 and Melbourne at the start of 2022.
Source: Radio-Canada
