ATP ROME: Djokovic survives Nishikori’s challenge after 3 hours marathon! Murray breezes past Pouille for..

After beating Rafael Nadal in one of the longest 2 sets matches, Novak Djokovic was forced to work hard against Kei Nishikori as well, prevailing over Japanese after 3 hours of amazing battle by 2-6 6-4 7-6. It was an outstanding encounter between two great baseliners, with solid groundstrokes that brought many rallies worth of showing in the shot of the day section. Novak injured his left ankle in the first game and he didn’t look to be at the highest level in the first, probably thinking more about that than on his rival. Kei took advantage of that but he wasn’t able to bring the match home, leaving out of gas at the end of the second set. Novak had a commanding lead in the third set but Kei did well to bounce back into the match, forcing a tie break where he was 3-1 up but lose it 7-5 eventually. Thus, Novak will try to win his 5th Rome title, in a repeat Madrid final against Andy Murray.

Full story coming shortly..  Andy Murray continues his great run on clay this spring, scoring a commanding 6-2 6-1 victory over young Frenchman Lucas Pouille to reach his first Rome final. The match lasted just 59 minutes, it started late due to a rain and was interrupted once shortly, and Murray was in the full control against the opponent who played in his first Masters 1000 semi-final. The Brit was untouched on his serve, losing only 5 points in his service games, as Pouille wasn”t able to …

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