Djokovic into Geneva semi-finals to face Norrie

In retaliation for his 38th birthday, Novak Djokovic defeated Matteo Arnaldi to reach the semi-finals of the Geneva Open.

In a third straight defeat for the Serb great in a mixed clay-court season, Djokovic lost to the Italian in April.

However, Djokovic overcame a dub to defeat Arnaldi 6-4, 6-4, and continue his French Open preparations in a positive way.

He will face semi-finalist Cameron Norrie, who defeated Australian Alexei Popyrin 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 in a spectacular comeback.

The Briton will take comfort from his first semi-final appearance of the year despite the daunting prospect of facing Djokovic.

However, it didn’t go well because he was 5-3 up against Popyrin in the opening set before impressively turning the tables and drawing level before forcing the tiebreak.

After a few frightful scares, Popyrin found himself much more composed in the second set as he struggled to control the tennis Norrie was playing.

After the game, Norrie commented, “I was a little nervous going in.” “This was one of my biggest matches this year,” I said. Extremely cold and difficult conditions were present. How I found my flow was really inspiring.

It took a lot of mental shifts to just really enjoy things more and not to have so much expectation. A positive outcome is that the body is moving. I’m just having fun, which I believe is a good thing.

“Playing Djokovic doesn’t get any easier.”

Djokovic’s first clay victory came on Wednesday against Marton Fucsovics, who had earlier won the “Gold Slam” at the Paris Olympics last summer.

He is now two wins away from winning the 100th ATP Tour singles title, a feat that only Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer did in the Open era.

“I reached the semi-finals last year. Following his on-court interview, Djokovic was presented with a birthday cake and hoped to take it one step further this year.

“I believe I’m playing really good tennis,” he said. The court was extremely tense today.

With the French Open kicking off on Sunday, he made amends for his defeat to Arnaldi with another timely victory before his most recent attempt to win an unbroken 25th Grand Slam title.

After a sluggish start to the year, Djokovic had to take the win, but it was obvious how much more success came before the year’s second slam was meant to him.

Djokovic’s immediate exits from the Miami Open final in Madrid and Monte Carlo in March, according to his own words, had him confronting a “new reality” as he attempts to make more history in the twilight of his career.

He made a strong start in the second set against Arnaldi, who had already broken up the first set. The second set was more uneventful.

After going 4-1 down, Djokovic briefly appeared to experience some discomfort on his knee, which required surgery last June.

After releasing his frustration on his racquet, he made a remarkable recovery.

He quickly ripped Arnaldi’s hand, reeling off five games in a row to win in an hour and 40 minutes before receiving his cake and being sung to by the crowd.