MIAMI GARDENS, Florida: Novak Djokovic is finding a higher gear in South Florida after a sluggish start to 2025.
Djokovic, gunning for his seventh Miami Open title, dispatched American Sebastian Korda 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) Thursday in one hour, 24 minutes in a quarterfinal match that was postponed from Wednesday night because the women’s quarterfinal between Jessica Pegula and Emma Raducanu ran past 11 p.m. and would have begun at about midnight — against new ATP rules.
Djokovic advanced to Friday’s semifinals and will face Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov. Djokovic is 12-1 against the 33-year-old Dimitrov, who reached the tournament finals in 2024.
Djokovic, who won all six of his titles at the tournament’s previous venue at Key Biscayne, is going for his 100th professional title.
“I’m getting great support,” Djokovic said. “I feel I have a really good chance to go all the way here. ...I’m playing the best I have in some time.”
With the Hard Rock Stadium fans cheering the 37-year-old and chanting his name despite him facing an American opponent, Djokovic rallied in the second set from 4-1 and 5-2 down to win in a tiebreaker.
He served an ace on match point and finished with an 83 first-service percentage against the 24th-seeded Korda. The 37-year-old Serbian let out a yell after the victory and strummed his racket like a violin.
“One word — serve,″ Djokovic said when asked the key to his second-set surge. “I was serving very well — best serving performance in a long time.”
The men’s leader in Grand Slam titles at 24 has been out of form this year, starting with an injury retirement at the Australian Open in January. Earlier this month, Djokovic lost his first match at Indian Wells to Botic van de Zandschulp.
Korda, son of Grand slam champion Petr Korda who grew up at the Bradenton, Florida, tennis academies, had beaten a top-10 opponent in Stefanos Tsitsipas earlier in the tournament and played at a flawless level to build a 4-1 second-set lead before Djokovic found his game.
In the first women’s semifinal, No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka routed sixth-seeded Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2 in 71 minutes to advance to her first Miami Open final.
Paulini, the 2024 French Open finalist, spent some of the afternoon smirking at Sabalenka’s deft shot-making, saying at one juncture “What a day.’’
Sabalenka, of Belarus, was efficient in converting four of her five break points and pounded 31 winners to just 12 unforced errors.
When Paolini tried to mount a comeback in the second set, closing to 4-2 and up a double-break point at 15-40, Sabalenka hit three open-court winners and an ace to close the game.
Paolini, in her best showing at the Miami Open, couldn’t match Sabalenka’s brilliance. The Belarusian hasn’t dropped a set so far.
“I think I was so focused and everything went smoothly,’’ Sabalenka said.
Sabalenka will face the winner of Thursday night’s semifinal between Jessica Pegula and lexandra Eala of the Philippines.
Asked if she would watch the match or go out in Miami, where she now lives, Sabalenka said, “I usually go for dinner, but other than that, it’s always tennis on my TV, actually. I’m actually enjoying, like, watching tennis lately. That’s crazy. I’m getting old.’’
In the day’s first men’s quarterfinal, unseeded teenager Jakub Mensik beat 17th-seeded Arthur Fils 7-6 (7-5), 6-1. The 19-year-old Mensik advanced to his first semifinal at an ATP 1000-point level event.
Mensik, of the Czech Republic, squeaked out the tiebreaker and then stormed to a 4-0 lead in the second set to knock out the 20-year-old Frenchman. The 54th-ranked Mensik hit 13 aces and a crosscourt forehand winner that ended the match in 75 minutes.
Mensik will face the winner of Thursday night’s Taylor Fritz-Matteo Berrettini quarterfinal.
