French Open: Novak Djokovic overcomes Ernests Gulbis to reach the final
It is the dream that Novak Djokovic would love to realize the most. The Serbian, who so desires a victory in the final of the French Open, is one match away from living his dearest dream. The world No.2 saw off a mid-match assault from Ernests Gulbis to clinch a 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory to reach the final. Gulbis has promised much this fortnight, but with his forehand misbehaving and the serve not anywhere near at its best, there was really not much he could do to push the Serbian any further than he did.
The template for Djokovic was in evidence very early in the match. He was seeking to push Gulbis deep behind the baseline, before opening the court with a brutally powerful forehand cross court to enable him finish the point with an off forehand winner.
With Gulbis relying on his cross court backhand for driving Djokovic wide, the diagonal became an important factor to this contest. With both men striking ferociously hard, it was soon a battle to determine to who might be able to sustain a high level of depth and precision as the match progressed.
Djokovic was in a spot of bother at 15-40 in the fourth game, but he pulled it back quickly with some really big serves as Gulbis struggled to get his returns into play. Having come through a difficult game, Djokovic sought to use the stimuli of that energy to gain an advantage in the next game.
At 30-30, he drew Gulbis forward only to pass him at the net with a backhand winner to gain a break point. The Latvian saved that and two more, but dumped a forehand in the net to gift a fourth. The break was taken when Gulbis overcooked his forehand on the next point.
At 3-5, Gulbis was subject to a masterful forehand winner that skimmed the line by Djokovic and a twelfth error from Gulbis left him a tad vulnerable at 30-30. A double fault gave Djokovic his first set point and though Gulbis saved it, two more followed. Eventually, Djokovic clinched the set, when Gulbis courted the net at the end of an exacting rally.
In his match against Tomas Berdych, the Latvian produced some top quality serving to see himself through with ease. But here in the semifinal, he was struggling to find the rhythm on his key weapon. The best of it had to wait till the fourth game of the second set. The Latvian served well, including an ace, to stay with Djokovic at 2-2.
The cracks though returned to the surface very quickly. At 3-4, Gulbis made one error too many to surrender another break point. And Djokovic took advantage of a lame second service to extract another mistake from Gulbis to gain a valuable break. The Serbian had two set points at 40-15 in the ninth game, but a terrific forehand return winner held him on the court.
As in the first set, it took a third set point for Djokovic to gain a two set lead, the forehand deserting Gulbis on that occasion. Only an hour and some ticks into the match, Djokovic was firmly in control of a match that was quickly slipping away from the Latvian. The Serbian was a picture of consistency as he worked his way past Gulbis, making sure he took the opportunities that greeted him.
In contrast, opportunities were few and far in between for the Latvian. When Djokovic presented only the second break point of the match, he recovered brilliantly to stay the ground and keep it on serve 1-1 in the third set. By now Gulbis was doing all he could to find an opening, but Djokovic stayed sharp and rallied hard to save two break points in a nearly ten minute game to hold at 3-3.
Gulbis was persisting, but was running out of time. At 3-4, Djokovic struggled to get to terms with the sunlight as he sought to serve. Gulbis made the most of his opponent’s misery by breaking at 15, with a thundering winner to boot to gain a 5-3 lead. The backhand was doing the bidding for its master, helping Gulbis gain a set point.
The Latvian prodded the match into a fourth set with an ace down the middle as an angst ridden Djokovic watched in dismay. But Gulbis surrendered the initiative quickly, surrendering a break to fall to 0-2. Incredibly, the Latvian roused himself and the packed Chatrier to a crescendo by breaking Djokovic in the third game to even matters down.
But after playing in relatively mild conditions for much of the week, the warmth and bright sunshine seemed to take a toll on the players. Visibly struggling to keep it together, Djokovic held serve to go up 4-3. The eighth game was going to prove crucial, and so it did. Gulbis found yet another inconvenient double fault to offer an opening to Djokovic.
Ànd then Gulbis wrote his own epitaph – burying the ball in the net and then sailing long to allow Djokovic to within a service game of the match. The Serbian held to love to bring the match to an end and carry himself into his second French Open final. He awaits the winner between the second semifinal between Andy Murray and defending champion Rafael Nadal.