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Patna : World No 1 & top seed Novak Djokovic, 33, Serbia, suffered a shock defeat at the hands of World No 28 Aslan Karatsev, 27, Russia, in the semi-finals of eOpen , an ATP 250 points event, at Belgrade, Serbia, on April 24, 2021, late night. Third seed Aslan Karatsev, who had lost to Djokovic in the semi-finals of Australian Open on February 18, 2021, in three-sets, beat the World No 1 in a three-set thriller 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in semi-finals of Serbia Open in 3hrs 26 minutes on April 24, 2021, late night, causing a massive upset. Djokovic and Karatsev are now locked 1-1 Head to Head.
Karatsev won 6 break points during the match to 5 by Djokovic, the winner of 18 Grand Slam singles titles. Djokovic created 28 break point opportunities but could convert only 5 of the. On the other hand, Karatsev created 16 break point opportunities and converted 6 of them. Djokovic though won 5 games in a row during the match to 4 by the Russian.
Karatsev, however, fired 6 Aces in the match to just 2 by Djokovic, who had recently lost in the quarter-finals of Monte Carlo Masters to Daniel Evans, UK. The Serbia committed 6 double faults to 4 by the Russian. Karatsev, in all, won 127 points during the match to 124 by Djokovic. Karatsev will face 2nd seed Matteo Berrettini, 25, Italy, in the final on April 25, 2021, at 8.30 pm.
Berrettini beat World No 126 Taro Daniel, 28, Japan, in three-sets 6-1, 6-7, 6-0 in second semi-finals on April 24, 2021, late night, in 2hrs 7 minutes to reach the final. World No 10 Berrettini won 6 break points during the match to just 1 by Taro Daniel. The Italian also won 6 games in a row during the match to 3 by the Japanese. Daniel committed 4 double faults to 2 by the Italian. Berrettini fired 10 Aces in the match to just 1 by Daniel. Berrettini, in all, won 102 points during the match to 68 by Daniel, who entered the main draw as a lucky loser having lost in the 2nd round of qualifiers.