Novak Djokovic reaches Miami Open semifinals after beating Sebastian Korda in push for seventh title

Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates after defeating Sebastian Korda through the Miami Open tennis match, Thursday, March 27, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla.
| Picture Credit score: AP

Novak Djokovic is discovering the next gear in South Florida after a sluggish begin to 2025.

Djokovic, gunning for his seventh Miami Open title, dispatched American Sebastian Korda 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) Thursday (March 27, 2025) in a single hour, 24 minutes in a quarterfinal match that was postponed from Wednesday (March 26, 2025) night time as a result of the ladies’s quarterfinal between Jessica Pegula and Emma Raducanu ran previous 11 p.m. and would have begun at about midnight — towards new ATP guidelines.

Djokovic superior to Friday’s (March 28, 2025) semifinals and can face Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov. Djokovic is 12-1 towards the 33-year-old Dimitrov, who reached the match finals in 2024.

Djokovic, who gained all six of his titles on the match’s earlier venue at Key Biscayne, goes for his one centesimal skilled title.

“I’m getting nice assist,” Djokovic stated. “I really feel I’ve a extremely good probability to go all the way in which right here. …I’m taking part in the very best I’ve in a while.”

With the Onerous Rock Stadium followers cheering the 37-year-old and chanting his title, Djokovic rallied within the second set from 4-1 and 5-2 right down to win in a tiebreaker.

He served an ace on match level and completed with an 83 first-service share towards the Twenty fourth-seeded Korda. The 37-year-old Serbian let loose a yell after the victory and strummed his racket like a violin.

“One phrase — serve,” Djokovic stated when requested the important thing to his second-set surge. “I used to be serving very effectively — finest serving efficiency in a very long time.”

The boys’s chief in Grand Slam titles at 24 has been off form this yr, beginning with an harm retirement on the Australian Open in January. Earlier this month, Djokovic misplaced his first match at Indian Wells to Botic van de Zandschulp.

Saturday’s ladies’s last is about with No. 3 Jessica Pegula going through high seed Aryna Sabalenka. Additionally it is a rematch of the 2024 U.S. Open last, gained by Sabalenka.

Within the ladies’s semifinal staged late Thursday, Pegula needed to be spectacularly resilient to cease the history-making run of the 19-year-old lefty from the Philippines, Alexandra Eala.

Pegula gained in a rollercoaster 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 6-3 victory in a contest that ended at 12:40 a.m. Friday.

Within the two hour, 26 minute match, Eala confirmed she is a artful lefty star within the making with drop photographs, deft volleys and a giant forehand.

The Onerous Rock Stadium followers rooted on the participant who had taken out main champions Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek beforehand.

Pegula fought off a set level within the first set. She was twice down a break within the first set compelled a tiebreaker and dominated it.

Eala had performed forcefully by way of many of the first set, transferring Pegula round and coming to the online at advantageous instances to showcase her volley.

However all of the sudden it turned. Eala served for the primary set at 5-3, however at set level, she registered two straight double faults, then made an unforced error on her forehand. She misplaced eight straight factors as Pegula seized management.

Within the second set, Eala took a spill and wanted a medical timeout to wrap her ankle, trailing 2-1.

Eala, who upset Iga Swiatek within the quarterfinals, roared again and acquired up a break 4-3. Pegula got here again and Eala was two factors away from dropping the match at 5-4 earlier than she hit one other excessive gear to tug out the set.

Eala’s service velocity had dropped to the 70’s within the second set — which appeared to frustrate Pegula.

Within the first ladies’s semifinal, Sabalenka routed sixth-seeded Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2 in 71 minutes.

Paolini, the 2024 French Open finalist, spent a few of the afternoon smirking at Sabalenka’s deft shot-making.

The Belarusian hasn’t dropped a set thus far. “I believe I used to be so centered and every thing went easily,’’ Sabalenka stated.

Within the day’s first males’s quarterfinal, unseeded teenager Jakub Mensik beat Seventeenth-seeded Arthur Fils 7-6 (7-5), 6-1. The 19-year-old Mensik superior to his first semifinal at an ATP 1000-point degree occasion.

The 54th-ranked Mensik, of the Czech Republic, will face on Friday third-seeded American Taylor Fritz, who squeaked out a three-set marathon Thursday night time over No. 29 Matteo Berrettini 7-5, 6-7 (9-7), 7-5

Fritz squandered six match factors within the second set towards the Italian, together with within the tiebreaker, however survived within the third set to make his first Miami Open finals. The match lasted two hours, 44 minutes. “Now I can sleep tonight and never fear in regards to the possibilities I blew,’’ stated Fritz, who lives in Miami. “You could have two choices – one in all them is to regroup.’’