Novak Djokovic – “I Am Not a Machine”

Published 10/04/2019, 6:44 AM EDT

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World Number one tennis player, Novak Djokovic steamrolled over Lukas Pouille in the quarterfinals of the Rakuten Japan Open 2019 and he mentioned that he tried playing like a ‘machine’ today.

“I am not a machine. But I did play like one today. This was one of the best matches I played this year,” Novak Djokovic said. “I am very, very pleased with the way I feel and played on the court.”

World Number four tennis player, Daniil Medvedev once mentioned, “Novak Djokovic plays like a machine and has a powerful attitude when he is at his best. It’s impossible to beat him.”

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On Friday, the Serb dismissed the Frenchman, Pouille in 50 minutes and sailed into the Tokyo semifinals with a 6-1, 6-3 victory. “It was definitely one of the best matches I’ve played this year. Best one of this week and it came at the right time. I thought Lucas was playing really well the first couple of matches in this tournament,” Djokovic expressed.

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“I saw him play a couple of days ago against Nishioka and he was playing really well. I took away the time from him. I served well, served many aces, returned a lot of his serves back and just used every opportunity to come in. Just overall, a really flawless performance.”

Against Pouille, Djokovic hit eight aces and was dominant with his first serves. The Frenchman could just pull off one of the service games of Djokovic. The top seed at the Tokyo event is two victories away from earning his tenth title in a tournament where he makes his main draw debut.

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Up next, Djokovic with face the victor of Hyeon Chung and David Goffin in the Japan Open’s last-four-round. The other semifinal match in Japan is lined up between John Millman and Reilly Opelka.

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Mahalakshmi Murali

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Mahalakshmi Murali joined EssentiallySports in 2018 as a tennis author and has gone on to pen more than 1800 engaging articles, probing into various aspects of the sport and its illustrious players. With her expertise on the sport, Mahalakshmi has interviewed stalwarts from the sport such as Serena WIlliams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou and Kevin Anderson’s physio, Carlos Costa. Equipped with her vast experience and a keen understanding of the sport, Mahalakshmi now co-heads the tennis department.
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