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Dusan Lajovic produced a clutch performance on serve to stun top seed Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals of the Banja Luka Open and claim his first win over a World No. 1, here on Friday.
Despite winning just four games across their previous two meetings, the 32-year-old Lajovic earned a 6-4, 7-6(6) victory after fending off 15 of 16 breakpoints faced to advance. Lajovic saved three set points in the second-set tie-break. "I'm overwhelmed, it is the biggest win of my career. The emotions are very mixed because I'm playing here in front of my home town and I'm also playing against Nole who is a good friend and he's a hero of our country. Beating him, it's something that I didn't even think is going to be possible, but it happened," Lajovic said in his on-court interview. Lajovic stayed aggressive, sometimes serve-and-volleying to put Djokovic under pressure, and moved the 22-time major champion to all corners of the court to earn his third career victory against a Top-5 player. The 32-year old Lajovic could meet another Serbian in the last four should Miomir Kecmanovic defeat Jiri Lehecka. Lajovic rose to a career-high No. 23 in the ATP Rankings four years ago, shortly after he was a finalist at the Monte-Carlo Masters (l. Fognini). Later that season, Lajovic earned his lone tour-level title at the ATP 250 event in Umag. Djokovic suffered his third loss this season and first to a fellow Serbian since Janko Tipsarevic upset him at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Madrid in May 2012. The 93-time tour-level titlist will next be in action at the Mutua Madrid Open, which runs from April 26-May 7. --IANS ak/ ( 295 Words) 2023-04-21-23:26:02 (IANS)
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