Novak Djokovic is finding a higher gear in South Florida after a sluggish start to 2025. Djokovic, gunning for his seventh Miami Open title, dispatched American Sebastian Korda 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) Thursday in one hour, 24 minutes in a quarterfinal match that was postponed from Wednesday night because the women\u2019s quarterfinal between Jessica Pegula and Emma Raducanu ran past 11 p.m. and would have begun at about midnight \u2014 against new ATP rules.<\/p>\n
Djokovic advanced to Friday\u2019s semifinals and will face Bulgaria\u2019s Grigor Dimitrov. Djokovic is 12-1 against the 33-year-old Dimitrov, who reached the tournament finals in 2024. Djokovic, who won all six of his titles at the tournament\u2019s previous venue at Key Biscayne, is going for his 100th professional title.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m getting great support,\u201d Djokovic said. \u201cI feel I have a really good chance to go all the way here. …I\u2019m playing the best I have in some time.\u201d With the Hard Rock Stadium fans cheering the 37-year-old and chanting his name, Djokovic rallied in the second set from 4-1 and 5-2 down to win in a tiebreaker. <\/p>\n
He served an ace on match point and finished with an 83 first-service percentage against the 24th-seeded Korda. The 37-year-old Serbian let out a yell after the victory and strummed his racket like a violin.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne word \u2014 serve,\u201d Djokovic said when asked the key to his second-set surge. \u201cI was serving very well \u2014 best serving performance in a long time.\u201d The men\u2019s leader in Grand Slam titles at 24 has been out of form this year, starting with an injury retirement at the Australian Open in January. Earlier this month, Djokovic lost his first match at Indian Wells to Botic van de Zandschulp.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s women\u2019s final is set with No. 3 Jessica Pegula facing top seed Aryna Sabalenka. It is also a rematch of the 2024 U.S. Open final, won by Sabalenka. In the women\u2019s semifinal staged late Thursday, Pegula had to be spectacularly resilient to stop the history-making run of the 19-year-old lefty from the Philippines, Alexandra Eala.
\nMichele Eve Sandberg\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
\nMIAMI GARDENS, FL – MARCH 27: Novak Djokovic (SRB) wins his men’s singles quarterfinal match at the Miami Open on March 27, 2025, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Michele Eve Sandberg\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
\nPegula won in a rollercoaster 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 6-3 victory in a contest that ended at 12:40 a.m. Friday.<\/p>\n
In the two hour, 26 minute match, Eala showed she is a crafty lefty star in the making with drop shots, deft volleys and a big forehand. The Hard Rock Stadium fans rooted on the player who had taken out major champions Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek previously. In the first women\u2019s semifinal, Sabalenka routed sixth-seeded Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2 in 71 minutes. Paolini, the 2024 French Open finalist, spent some of the afternoon smirking at Sabalenka\u2019s deft shot-making.<\/p>\n
Djokovic’s win over Korda has set him up for a potential seventh Miami Open title. With his strong serve and determination, he is a force to be reckoned with in the tournament. The women’s final between Pegula and Sabalenka promises to be an exciting match, with both players showing great skill and resilience in their semifinal wins.<\/p>\n
Q: Who did Novak Djokovic beat in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open?
\nA: Novak Djokovic beat Sebastian Korda in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open.
\nQ: Who will Djokovic face in the semifinals?
\nA: Djokovic will face Bulgaria\u2019s Grigor Dimitrov in the semifinals.
\nQ: What is Djokovic’s current record against Dimitrov?
\nA: Djokovic is 12-1 against Dimitrov.
\nQ: Who will play in the women’s final of the Miami Open?
\nA: No. 3 Jessica Pegula will face top seed Aryna Sabalenka in the women’s final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to the Match Novak Djokovic is finding a higher gear in South Florida after a sluggish start to 2025. Djokovic, gunning for his seventh Miami Open title, dispatched American Sebastian Korda 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) Thursday in one hour, 24 minutes in a quarterfinal match that was postponed from Wednesday night because the women\u2019s quarterfinal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/media.nbcmiami.com\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-2206600074.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=5000,3333&w=1920&resize=1920,1279&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11630"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11632,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11630\/revisions\/11632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}