The Italian Marco Cecchinato has sensationally reached the semi-finals with a victory over Novak Djokovic at the French Open in Paris. The 25-year-old, number 72 in the world rankings, beat the former dominator from Serbia 6:3, 7:6 (4), 1:6, 7:6 (11).
Prior to Roland Garros, Cecchinato had never won a match at a Grand Slam tournament in four attempts since 2015.
While Djokovic missed his first major semi-final in three years and suffered a setback on his way back to his former strength, Cecchinato recorded the greatest success of his career. He now meets the Austrian Dominic Thiem (No. 7), who had beaten Alexander Zverev (Hamburg/No. 2), the German hopeful, who had been affected by an injury on his thigh, 6:4, 6:2, 6:1.
Cecchinato had already surprisingly eliminated David Goffin (Belgium/No. 8) and Pablo Carreno Busta (Spain/No. 10) on his way into the final four before Djokovic. Djokovic had fought his way out of an ongoing formal crisis until his defeat against the Italian in Paris. Last week, the 31-year-old dropped out of the top 20 in the world rankings for the first time in twelve years.
For the Serbian, the quarter-final was over again last year, when he lost to Thiem in three sets.
Djokovic completed his compulsory tasks in record time after the defeat and had not completed the obligatory press conference ten minutes after the match. Cecchinato, on the other hand, now has two days off to prepare for his match against Thiem, who is in the semi-finals for the third time in a row in Roland Garros.