Dusan Lajovic has advanced into the quarter-finals of the Srpska Open by beating Frenchman Gr\u00e9goire
\nBarr\u00e8re 6-3, 6-0 in the second round.
\nLajovic, ranked No 70, will now face world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, on Friday.
\n\u201cTennis balls are still heavy but you call tell the difference and the tennis court is much better. I\u2019m happy
\nthat the sun has come out; it\u2019s a good thing both for tennis fans and players\u201d, Lajovic underlined.
\nThe match between Lajovic and Barr\u00e8re lasted only 1 hour and 4 minutes and the Serb played an
\nincredible second set with a streak of 24 consecutive points won.
\n"I haven\u2019t seen the statistics. I don\u2019t know if it happened to me before. I believe it\u2019s the first time. I
\nmanaged to find my game in the second set, to do as I planned. When he realised he couldn\u2019t find the
\nright solution, he tried to go all out, missed many shots so that would be part of the statistics too\u201d.
\nLajovic also discussed how he prepares for every point, i.e. a match. Unlike other players, the Serbian
\ntennis player gets into the point quickly.
\n"To be honest, it\u2019s a rhythm that doesn\u2019t affect me much if, for example, I move faster and my opponent
\nneeds more time. I wasn\u2019t paying attention to that so far and it\u2019s not a distraction. I don\u2019t think it plays a
\nvery important role, you get used to that as you gain experience. It happens that a player complains of
\nan opponent, when the opponent is taking too much time before the serve and doesn\u2019t respect your
\nrhythm but then the umpire is there to reprimand the player in the question\u201d.
\nSpectators were rooting for Novak Djokovic unconditionally in the last couple of days. In the match
\nbetween two Serbian champions, the world No. 1 will again have the advantage but Lajovic hopes to
\nhave the support from the stands too.
\n"So far, the audience acted in the spirit of fair play. Yet, I haven\u2019t played against Novak. I\u2019m aware that
\nhe will have more spectators on his side, and it\u2019s something to be expected. On the other hand, that\u2019s
\nnothing new. I hope to enjoy my time on the tennis court and the atmosphere. I\u2019m glad to see many of
\nour players in the final stages of the tournament because local people love to watch and support us. I
\nhope that won\u2019t change until the end of the tournament.\u201d
\nLajovic is getting into better shape every day and he\u2019s becoming more confident on the tennis court,
\neven when he\u2019s playing against an admirable opponent such as Alcaraz he played against on several
\noccasions this season.
\n"The fact that I\u2019ve been playing very good tennis lately affects my confidence, the same as every win.
\nThe thing with confidence is a tricky thing because it\u2019s very difficult to build confidence and it\u2019s easily
\nlost. I have to embrace every moment and be aware of every moment because it gets out of control in
\nno time. Matches against Alcaraz were quite challenging, maybe a signal that I have the quality but I
\nhave to maintain good tennis over a longer period of time. He is where he is for a reason and plays his
\nbest tennis when he needs it the most. On the other hand, I didn\u2019t start the match today in the best
\npossible way but I did manage to control some important situations. And that\u2019s what affects the
\nconfidence the most; that you can keep your cool in certain situations of key importance in one match\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dusan Lajovic has advanced into the quarter-finals of the Srpska Open by beating Frenchman Gr\u00e9goire Barr\u00e8re 6-3, 6-0 in the second round. Lajovic, ranked No 70, will now face world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, on Friday. \u201cTennis balls are still heavy but you call tell the difference and the tennis court is much better. I\u2019m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5384,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/srpskaopen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5450"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/srpskaopen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/srpskaopen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/srpskaopen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/srpskaopen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/srpskaopen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/srpskaopen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/srpskaopen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/srpskaopen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/srpskaopen.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}