Tennis: Djokovic survives scare

Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer stayed on course for a mouth-watering French Open semi-final showdown on Sunday, but only after they survived fourth round scares at a chilly Roland Garros. Djokovic staged an epic recovery to defeat Italy’s Andreas Seppi 4-6, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 and salvage his dream of making Grand Slam history. The world number one, bidding to become just the third man to hold all four majors at the same time, and first since 1969, struggled in the cold conditions on Philippe Chatrier court against a player he’d beaten seven times in seven meetings. “I played very badly, but I won thanks to my fighting spirit,” said Djokovic, after a 25th successive Grand Slam match win took him into the quarter-finals for the sixth time. Federer, the champion in 2009, dropped the first set against Belgian lucky loser David Goffin, the world number 109, before claiming a 5-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 win on Suzanne Lenglen court. A lacklustre Djokovic committed 77 unforced errors to 22nd seed Seppi’s 81 before pulling through after four hours and 18 minutes. He will next face either French fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka, the 18th seed, for a place in the semi-finals. Federer, contesting his 50th successive Grand Slam tournament, will take on either Argentine ninth seed Juan Martin Del Potro or Tomas Berdych, the seventh-seeded Czech. The 25-year-old Djokovic has never got beyond the semi-finals in Paris and his discomfort on the testing red clay courts was starkly illustrated last year when a 43-match winning run was ended by Federer at the last four stage. On Sunday, his love-hate relationship with the venue looked set to slump to a new low. For the first two sets, he was heading for the biggest shock since Rafael Nadal had his perfect 31-match, four-title stretch smashed by Robin Soderling at the same stage in 2009. But the top seed regrouped as Seppi, who had also played five-set matches in the second and third rounds, wilted.from AFP.