BELGRADE/STARNBERG, May 29, 2021
Novak Djokovic and Alex Molcan will play the singles final of the Belgrade Open. The World No. 1 defeated Slovakian qualifier Andrej Martin 6-1, 4-6, 6-0 on Friday afternoon at the Novak Tennis Center.
In the pair’s first meeting and in front of his home crowd, Djokovic capitalized on seven of his 11 break-point chances to reach his third final of the season after one hour and 55 minutes.
National treasure 🇷🇸@DjokerNole overcomes Martin 6-1 4-6 6-0 in his hometown to reach tomorrow’s final#BelgradeOpen pic.twitter.com/0qVQE9nn9s
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) May 28, 2021
“I’m super excited to play in front of a Serbian crowd. This is my home town. I’m always excited, but also nervous, coming out on the court and playing in front of my home crowd,” Djokovic said in an on-court interview. “It’s a very unique feeling. You feel a lot of pressure and expectations. But I’m just happy to fight for a trophy tomorrow.”
Later in the day, World No. 255 Molcan, who started the week by qualifying for the main draw of the ATP 250 clay-court event, knocked off No. 8 seed Federico Delbonis 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. The 23-year-old from Presov won 53 per cent of the total points played to secure victory in two hours and 41 minutes.
Yes he MolCAN 💪
The World No. 255 beats Delbonis to get through to his first ATP final and will play the World No. 1 Novak Djokovic tomorrow#BelgradeOpen pic.twitter.com/TlcefZ3TuT
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) May 28, 2021
“I’m really happy about today’s win,” said Molcan, who will appear in his maiden ATP Tour championship match. “This is the biggest win of my career, of course. I will play my first final at ATP level against Djokovic, and I couldn’t be happier. I will try to enjoy tomorrow’s match [as much] as I can. I will try to have fun, and we’ll see what will happen.”
In other action, Jonathan Erlich from Israel and Andrei Vasilevski of Belarus took the doubles title. The duo beat Andre Goransson from Sweden and Brazilian Rafael Matos 6-4, 6-1. The encounter lasted 73 minutes.
