Spoiler:
Spaniard earns his second win against Djokovic
Roberto Bautista Agut crafted the first major upset of the 2019 ATP Tour season, stunning World No. 1 Novak Djokovic 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 on Friday to reach the final of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open.
It took the World No. 24 two hours and 35 minutes to earn his fourth victory against an opponent inside the Top 5 of the ATP Rankings, and his second win against Djokovic. The Serbian entered the match leading Bautista Agut 7-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.
“I will remember this match all my life. It was an unbelievable atmosphere,” Bautista Agut said on court. “I work every day to play this tennis. I know it’s difficult to play at this level. That’s why Novak is No. 1 in the world. But I cannot be more happy than I am now.”
Watch Live
Bautista Agut’s upset breaks a streak of five consecutive finals reached by Djokovic, who had also won 13 consecutive matches in Doha.
For the first set and a half it appeared that Djokovic was well on his way to earning his 30th win in his past 32 matches, leading by a set and breaking for 4-3 in the second set. It wasn’t that Bautista Agut was playing poorly, but Djokovic’s all-around game was proving too solid for the seventh seed.
However, the Spaniard upped his aggression, using his flat cross-court groundstrokes to push the top seed back. It almost felt as if Bautista Agut was doing to Djokovic what the Serbian typically does to the rest of the ATP Tour, rarely missing while exerting the utmost pressure on his opponent. Bautista Agut had three set points in the second set before the tie-break, and another at 6/5 in the tie-break. So when he did not manage to convert any of those, it felt as if Djokovic would find a way to close it out. But Bautista Agut stayed the course to force a decider, in which he immediately broke serve and never looked back.
“I wanted to give everything I had in the match and fight until the last point,” Bautista Agut said. “Finally I could turn the second set. Novak was up and it was really tough. He was very solid and I had to play very good tennis. I had to play a lot of lines and serve very well. I did everything well today.”
Bautista Agut will try to lift his ninth ATP Tour trophy on Saturday against fourth seed Tomas Berdych. This was not his first impressive win of the week, as the 30-year-old ousted former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka in straight sets in the quarter-finals. Last year, the Spaniard earned the biggest victory of his career when he came out on top in Dubai, which is an ATP 500 event.
Berdych continued his own strong tournament, beating fourth seed Marco Cecchinato 7-6(6), 6-3. This is the Czech star's first event since last June's Fever-Tree Championships at The Queen's Club.
The former World No. 4 is the lowest-ranked Doha finalist since World No. 114 Nicolas Escude in 2004. Berdych will try to join Escude and 2018 champion Gael Monfils as the third wild card to win the tournament. This will be his first final since May 2017 in Lyon, where he lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
"I'm not satisfied yet, because there is still one more to go," Berdych said. "I did some very important decisions in the past six months, and so far all of them seems they were right. It is very early to judge. I still have to be very patient, even though the results right now are clicking and it's all going well. But I really just need to stay very focused and hope to go all the way, because the season and everything will be extremely long."
Berdych leads Bautista Agut 4-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, with their most recent meeting coming at the 2016 Australian Open, where Berdych was victorious in five sets. However, the Spaniard leads their rivalry 2-1 on outdoor hard courts.
Did You Know?
Berdych won his first title in Palermo in 2004 against Italian Filippo Volandri. One of the ball boys during the final was Cecchinato.
Roberto Bautista Agut crafted the first major upset of the 2019 ATP Tour season, stunning World No. 1 Novak Djokovic 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 on Friday to reach the final of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open.
It took the World No. 24 two hours and 35 minutes to earn his fourth victory against an opponent inside the Top 5 of the ATP Rankings, and his second win against Djokovic. The Serbian entered the match leading Bautista Agut 7-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.
“I will remember this match all my life. It was an unbelievable atmosphere,” Bautista Agut said on court. “I work every day to play this tennis. I know it’s difficult to play at this level. That’s why Novak is No. 1 in the world. But I cannot be more happy than I am now.”
Watch Live
Bautista Agut’s upset breaks a streak of five consecutive finals reached by Djokovic, who had also won 13 consecutive matches in Doha.
For the first set and a half it appeared that Djokovic was well on his way to earning his 30th win in his past 32 matches, leading by a set and breaking for 4-3 in the second set. It wasn’t that Bautista Agut was playing poorly, but Djokovic’s all-around game was proving too solid for the seventh seed.
However, the Spaniard upped his aggression, using his flat cross-court groundstrokes to push the top seed back. It almost felt as if Bautista Agut was doing to Djokovic what the Serbian typically does to the rest of the ATP Tour, rarely missing while exerting the utmost pressure on his opponent. Bautista Agut had three set points in the second set before the tie-break, and another at 6/5 in the tie-break. So when he did not manage to convert any of those, it felt as if Djokovic would find a way to close it out. But Bautista Agut stayed the course to force a decider, in which he immediately broke serve and never looked back.
“I wanted to give everything I had in the match and fight until the last point,” Bautista Agut said. “Finally I could turn the second set. Novak was up and it was really tough. He was very solid and I had to play very good tennis. I had to play a lot of lines and serve very well. I did everything well today.”
Bautista Agut will try to lift his ninth ATP Tour trophy on Saturday against fourth seed Tomas Berdych. This was not his first impressive win of the week, as the 30-year-old ousted former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka in straight sets in the quarter-finals. Last year, the Spaniard earned the biggest victory of his career when he came out on top in Dubai, which is an ATP 500 event.
Berdych continued his own strong tournament, beating fourth seed Marco Cecchinato 7-6(6), 6-3. This is the Czech star's first event since last June's Fever-Tree Championships at The Queen's Club.
The former World No. 4 is the lowest-ranked Doha finalist since World No. 114 Nicolas Escude in 2004. Berdych will try to join Escude and 2018 champion Gael Monfils as the third wild card to win the tournament. This will be his first final since May 2017 in Lyon, where he lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
"I'm not satisfied yet, because there is still one more to go," Berdych said. "I did some very important decisions in the past six months, and so far all of them seems they were right. It is very early to judge. I still have to be very patient, even though the results right now are clicking and it's all going well. But I really just need to stay very focused and hope to go all the way, because the season and everything will be extremely long."
Berdych leads Bautista Agut 4-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, with their most recent meeting coming at the 2016 Australian Open, where Berdych was victorious in five sets. However, the Spaniard leads their rivalry 2-1 on outdoor hard courts.
Did You Know?
Berdych won his first title in Palermo in 2004 against Italian Filippo Volandri. One of the ball boys during the final was Cecchinato.
