French Open: Novak Djokovic survives racket scare to edge past Tomas Berdych into semi-finals

Novak Djokovic is through to the semi-finals of the French Open for the sixth year in a row but might instead have been on a flight back home had it not been for the alertness and swift reactions of a line judge.

Early in the third set of his 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 victory here over Tomas Berdych the world No 1 swung his racket towards the ground in frustration after putting a forehand in the net. The racket flew out of his hand and would have hit a line judge but for the official’s evasive action.

If the racket had hit the line judge Djokovic may well have been defaulted. “If he had hit [him] it would be over,” Berdych said afterwards.

Players have been defaulted following similar incidents in the past. Tim Henman was defaulted at Wimbledon in 1995 after hitting a ball girl when knocking away a ball in frustration during a doubles match, while David Nalbandian was defaulted from the 2012 Aegon Championships final at Queen’s Club after kicking an advertising board which broke and injured the line judge who was sitting behind it.

Djokovic, who will face Austria’s Dominic Thiem in Friday’s semi-finals, tried to make light of the incident. “I threw a racket on the ground and it slipped and almost hit the line umpire,” he said. “I was lucky there. That’s all.” When it was put to him that he had been fortunate, he replied sarcastically: “Yeah, I’m lucky. Great.”

The Serb had been similarly fortunate in last month’s final of the Rome Masters against Andy Murray, when he threw his racket on the ground and it bounced up and landed in the front row of the crowd.

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Given the two incidents, Djokovic was asked if he was concerned that he might jeopardise his participation in a future tournament if he was not so lucky with the bounce of the racket.

“I’m just not thinking about those kind of situations,” he said. “I am aware that I have been lucky and I apologised to the people in this particular situation with me and that could have been hurt by my racket. But it was never the intention. It was just an unfortunate bounce.”

The racket incident aside, Djokovic never looked in any danger of failing to reach his 30th Grand Slam semi-final and his eighth here, a total bettered only by Rafael Nadal. This was the Serb’s 24th victory in his 26 meetings with Berdych, who has now lost 12 matches in a row against world No 1s. Djokovic had Berdych on the run throughout, pulling him to one side and then the other with his relentlessly consistent ball-striking.

Once again the match was played in intermittent drizzle and with the temperature a distinctly chilly 13C. To Berdych’s displeasure the players briefly left Court Philippe Chatrier because of the rain during the third set at a time when Thiem and David Goffin continued to play over on court Suzanne Lenglen.

Thiem’s 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Goffin was a high-quality contest, featuring clean ball-striking and fiercely contested rallies by two players who are fine athletes. The only pity was that it was watched for the most part by only a few hundred spectators in Court Suzanne Lenglen, where singles matches had not been scheduled for the day until this week’s rain delays forced tournament organisers to restructure the programme.

The match turned on the second set tie-break, which Thiem won 9-7. The 22-year-old Austrian, who will break into the world’s top 10 for the first time next week, had led 5-1 before Goffin made a spirited fightback. Towards the end, however, the Belgian’s level dropped sharply as he lost nine games in a row, Thiem eventually claiming victory after two hours and 51 minutes.

Thiem, who had achieved his best Grand Slam result by reaching the quarter-finals, has won more matches (25) on clay this year than any other player. He has won five of his six titles on clay.

Djokovic, who has beaten Thiem in both their previous meetings, said: “He’s one of the leaders of the new generation. I’m sure he’s very motivated to show himself and others that he deserves to be at the top and compete for the biggest titles. He’s playing the best tennis of his life, no doubt about it.”