"I knew I needed to start well" says Novak Djokovic after win over Fritz

It's been a decent couple of days for Novak Djokovic in the French capital as there were some concerns about his fitness heading into this event. Djokovic had not played competitively for over two months and it was something he knew was tricky to overcome. It's been good so far as Djokovic managed to reach the semifinals without facing too many issues.

Speaking on his start in Paris he said:

“I was absent from the Tour for two months, coming into this tournament, and the last competitive match I played was in the US Open final, compared to the other guys playing one or two events prior to Paris. I knew that I needed to start well, with good intensity and put in a lot of hours on the practice court. But it’s different when you play points in a competitive match."

Speaking on his play in particular Djokovic had mixed feelings. He was very pleased about the way he played in the first round but he is glad about some of the ups and downs he faced today. On that he said:

"I am pleased with the way I played against [Marton] Fucsovics [in the second round] and today I did have ups and downs. I am not really pleased with the way I closed out the sets. I lost my serve to love [at 1-1], then [at] 5-3, again, I served for it with new balls and lost to love again. Those kind of things shouldn't happen, I know that. I backed myself up with good returns and read Taylor’s serve very well to get into rallies. I closed out the last couple of service games well and that’s a positive.”

He will face Hubert Hurkacz for a place in the final tomorrow.