Novak Djokovic booked his place in the Rolex Paris Masters semi-finals on Friday night as he battled to a three-set victory over Holger Rune. The quarter-final showdown proved to be a tense affair, with Djokovic being booed throughout the encounter. And the 36-year-old was nearly derailed as he called out a “bull****” decision from the umpire during the second set.
Djokovic took the opening set 7-5 and appeared to be heading towards victory as Rune fired a shot long at 4-5 15-30 in the second set. But the Dane then decided to challenge Djokovic’s previous shot, which had dropped wide of the court.
Remarkably the umpire allowed the challenge, which turned out to be successful, even though Rune had played his next stroke. Djokovic was furious with the decision and remonstrated with the umpire before shouting “bull****” as he returned to his end of the court.
That reversal denied Djokovic two match points, with Rune eventually closing out the game and the second set following a tiebreak. But the 24-time Grand Slam champion held his nerve to take the third set 6-4 and progress to the semis. Djokovic is now set to face Andrey Rublev in the last four later today after Stefanos Tsitsipas and Grigor Dimitrov have gone head-to-head in the other semi-final.
Express Sport will have all the updates from the Paris Masters throughout the day as Sunday’s showpiece event approaches. So follow our live blog below to keep up to date with the latest news.
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