Top seed and ATP World Tour No. 3 Novak Djokovic rallied to defeat No. 4 seed Andreas Seppi 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, to reach the final of the inaugural Serbia Open in Belgrade on Saturday.
Djokovic advanced to his fourth consecutive tournament final after consecutive runner-up showings at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Miami, Monte-Carlo and Rome. Overall, it is the Serb's fifth ATP World Tour final of the season. He won his 12th career title in Dubai on Feb. 28 (d. Ferrer).
After losing the opening set against Seppi, who was appearing in his first ATP World Tour semi-final of the season, Djokovic took control of the next two sets by breaking the top Italian five times. Djokovic converted five of 11 break points while saving six of eight on his serve in the two hour and 17-minute match. Djokovic won 50 per cent of second serve points to Seppi's 26 per cent. Seppi also double-faulted seven times.
Djokovic improved his match record to 33-10 on the season, including 11-4 on clay.
He will face Polish lucky loser Lukasz Kubot, who reached his first ATP World Tour singles final after cutting down towering No. 2 seed Ivo Karlovic 7-6(0), 6-2 in the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament.
Kubot initially gained entry into the main draw, having lost in the final round of qualifying, when Steve Darcis withdrew due to a shoulder injury. Since then, the top Polish player has defeated Serbian wild card Arsenije Zlatanovic, No. 3 seed Igor Andreev – who retired in the first set -, Kristof Vliegen and Karlovic all without the loss of a set.
The Lubin resident now has the chance to become the first Polish ATP World Tour singles-title winner since Wojtek Fibak won WCT/Chicago on 5 December, 1982 - defeating Bill Scanlon. Fibak was also the last Polish player to reach an ATP World Tour singles final in Basel on 16 October, 1983 (ret. vs. Gerulaitis).
Should Kubot succeed in the final against Djokovic, he would become the lowest-ranked player at No. 179 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings to win an ATP World Tour title this season and the first first-time winner on the ATP World Tour this year.
The last lucky loser to capture an ATP World Tour title was Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine when he won the Zagreb title in February, 2008. Prior to that, the last lucky loser to win a title was Christian Miniussi in 1991.
The 26-year-old Kubot, who is playing in just his second ATP World Tour main draw of the season (also Costa do Sauipe) after losing in qualifying at seven tour-level events this season, withstood 14 aces from the No. 21-ranked Karlovic in their first meeting in the Serbian capital on Saturday. Despite the 6’10’’ Karlovic winning 80 percent of points behind his first serve, Kubot was able to comfortably win the first set tie-break 7-0 and break the renowned Karlovic serve twice in the second set to secure victory after 97 minutes.
Kubot also has the chance to reach his third ATP World Tour doubles final of the season when he and partner Oliver Marach feature in the semi-finals later on Saturday. Radek Stepanek (San Jose) and Tommy Robredo (Costa do Sauipe) have both won the singles and doubles titles at an ATP World Tour tournament this season.
Karlovic, 30, dropped to a 10-10 match record on the season after appearing in his first ATP World Tour semi-final since last August when he reached that stage at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Cincinnati (l. to Murray). The Croatian, who was a quarter-finalist in Chennai (l. to Devvarman) at the start of the year, has struggled in tie-breaks with a 2-5 mark this season.
(From Website : http://www.atpworldtour.com/TENNIS/1/EN/NEWS/NEWSARTICLE_3584.ASP)
