Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates after defeating Kei Nishikori of Japan during the quarter-finals of the tennis competition at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Thursday, July 29, 2021
Kei Nishikori thought he was playing well. Then he played the role of Novak Djokovic.
The top-ranked Serb never gave Nishikori a chance to beat home favorites from Japan 6-2, 6-0 to reach the semi-finals of the tennis tournament at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday.
Nishikori said, “He was making amazing defenses today — everything deep — and I was trying to be with him, but I couldn’t.” “I thought I was playing fine but today my serve was bad and he was attacking all the time.”
The impressive performance propelled Djokovic into the medal round and – more importantly – put him one step closer to finishing this section of his Golden Slam bid.
In the women’s tournament, 12th ranked Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic defeated Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina 7-6(2), 4-6, 6-3 to enter the gold medal match.
Djokovic will next face either Germany’s Alexander Zverev or France’s Jeremy Chardy. In the other semi-final match, ROC’s Karen Khachanov will face Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta.
Khachanov defeated France’s Yugo Humbert 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-3 and Careno Busta defeated second seed Daniil Medvedev of ROC 6-2, 7-6(5).
Djokovic, who has already won the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon this year, needs a Tokyo Games title and a US Open trophy to become the first player to win a Golden Slam.
“The way he has played today, this week and over the past few months is just amazing,” Nishikori said.
As it has been for months, it seems that Djokovic, who hasn’t dropped a single set in the tournament, is getting better match by match – so much so that it seems he is hardly being tested.
Djokovic said, “The matches are not getting easier but my level of tennis is getting better and better and I have done this many times in my career. I am the kind of player that the tournament goes on. The better I am on the court.” I feel it and it is the same situation here as well.”
Djokovic said it was his “best performance” of the tournament.
“Against (a) very good opponent,” he said. “I felt like I had an answer for everything he had.”
Djokovic had two matches scheduled for the second day in a row. She later plays again with Serbian partner Nina Stojanovic in the mixed doubles quarterfinals against the German pair of Laura Siegmund and Kevin Kravitz.
Another match for Bencic was also scheduled. She was scheduled to play in the semi-finals of the doubles tournament with Swiss partner Viktorija Golubic against Brazil’s Laura Pigosi and Luisa Stefani.
“Getting a medal is the biggest thing for me,” Bencic said of his singles sport. “Now I go to duets and I hope to do it again, so it’s not over yet, but I can really enjoy the moment.”
If she also wins in doubles, Bencic would become the fifth player to reach two finals at the same Olympics since tennis returned in 1988, joining Serena and Venus Williams, Andy Murray and Nicolas Musso.
“In the next match I can rest more because I already have a medal,” Bencic said.
The results mean that Switzerland is guaranteed a fourth consecutive Olympic tennis medal after Federer and Stan Wawrinka won gold in doubles in 2008, Federer silver in singles in 2012 and Martina Hingis and Timea Basinski in doubles in 2016. Silver claimed.
Federer announced a week before the start of the Tokyo Games that he would not play in the Olympics because he “experienced a concussion” with his knee during the grass-court season. This left Bencic as Switzerland’s most accomplished player in Tokyo and his performance represents a personal breakthrough for someone whose best Grand Slam result was reaching the semifinals at the 2019 US Open.
The game began four hours later than the previous day when organizers acted on players’ requests to avoid the hottest part of the day.
“Playing after five o’clock is completely different,” Djokovic said. “Still very, very humid, you sweat a lot, but you don’t have heat, you don’t have sun with moisture.”
Fourth seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and 2019 French Open finalist Marka Vondrosova of Czech Republic were to play in the second semi-final match.
In the men’s doubles, an all-Croatian final was set up between the pair of Marin Cilic-Ivan Dodig and Nikola Mektic-Mate Pavic.
Also the top seeded Czech pair of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova advanced to the women’s final. Krejcikova won both singles and doubles titles (along with Siniakova) at this year’s French Open.
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