Djokovic gains revenge on Rune to reach semi-finals in Paris, stays on track for year-end No 1 ranking

World No 1 Novak Djokovic gained revenge over Holger Rune as he beat the Dane 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-4 on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the Paris Masters at the Accor Arena.

Beaten by Rune in the final 12 months ago, Djokovic snatched an early break in the third set and held on to clinch victory in just under three hours. He’ll play either Alex De Minaur or Russian Andrey Rublev, the No 5 seed, next.

The victory was sweet revenge for last year’s final but also keeps Djokovic firmly on track to end the year ranked No 1.

“Quite similar match to last year’s final,” Djokovic said. “I played an awful tiebreak in the second set, probably the worst this year, but credit to him for staying mentally tough and being solid from the baseline.

“We have kind of similar games. He’s been playing well these last few weeks since Boris (Becker, the Serb’s former coach, joined his camp) – it was strange to see Boris in the opposing box but I knew that would happen.”

Djokovic said he’d been feeling sick in the build-up to his previous match but was much happier with how he coped against Rune.

“I knew that facing Rune, I would play against a player in form,” he said. “I wasn’t feeling my best yesterday, it was much better today. In the beginning, so so, but as the match was progressing I felt that my energy level was higher so that’s a positive signal prior to semi-finals.”

Djokovic feeds off rowdy crowd

Not for the firdst time this week, the Bercy crowd got involved in the match, at times cheering for Djokovic and at others, booing him, as they did when he left the court after a bathroom break at the end of the second set.

Djokovic, who had held match point at 5-4 in the second set, simply laughed at the crowd, though earlier in the last game of the second set, he’d argued with the umpire for allowing Rune to challenge a call, after his own shot had gone long.

“I thought he made a mistake that could have cost me the match,” Djokovic said. “Holger played his shot and when he saw that this shot was out, he called for the challenge.

“The umpire told me that he was allowed to do that which I thought was ridiculous. It’s his judgment, it’s easy to talk about now that I won the match, definitely a very difficult situation for the chair umpire as well. He should not have allowed him to challenge that on a such important point.”

Djokovic loses just three points on serve in third set

But in the third set, with both men tiring, Djokovic struck first and he served brilliantly, losing just three points on serve in the decider as he finished things off.

“Most of the time you try to stay calm, but sometimes you react and you feed off that energy,” he said.

Earlier in the tournament, the 36-year-old Serb won against Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry (6-3, 6-2) and edged out Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor (4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4).

Rune, ranked No 7, beat Austrian qualifier Dominic Thiem (6-4, 6-2) and German Daniel Altmaier (6-3, 6-3) in the previous rounds of the Paris-Bercy tournament.

Paris Masters, other last 8 results (Accor Arena, EUR 5.779.335, most recent results first):

• Alex De Minaur vs. Andrey Rublev
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (7) beat Karen Khachanov (16): 6-3, 6-4
• Grigor Dimitrov beat Hubert Hurkacz (11): 6-1, 4-6, 6-4