Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates after beating Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut in a Men's singles semifinal match on day eleven of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London. Photo / AP
Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates after beating Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut in a Men's singles semifinal match on day eleven of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London. Photo / AP
Novak Djokovic has overcome a plucky challenge from Roberto Bautista Agut and a vocal crowd to qualify for his sixth Wimbledon final.
The 32-year-old will face either Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal in the decider after a grinding 6-2 4-6 6-3 6-2 win over Bautista Agut on Centre Court in which he battled his own demons and those in the stands.
After the Spaniard bounced back to win the second set, the crowd roared with ecstasy and Djokovic sarcastically gestured for the fans to get even more involved with their support for the rank outsider.
Former British tennis star Annabel Croft and BBC 5 Live commentator Tony Livesey both weighed in on Djokovic's antics.
"Djokovic simply can't handle it there, he was gesturing towards them," Livesey said. "It's bizarre, there's no need for it.
"The crowd, they're not going to like what they just saw then so any chink they see to support Bautista Agut again they're going to go after that now."
Croft added: "This is the problem and I really wish he wouldn't do it, only because it's going to make them cheer for the opponent more.
"They'd have been really confused about what he was doing there but what he was doing was sarcastically saying, 'Go on then, give him some more, cheer more' and he was gesturing with his hands and he was gesturing with irritation, sarcasm and just winding them up.
"It's not a great look and I wish he wouldn't do it."
Croft said if this match was being played at the French Open instead of Wimbledon, then the spectators "would boo him".
Between complaining repeatedly about the crowd noise and being mad the crowd cheered for Bautista-Agut when he won the second set, Djokovic is really out whiny-ing himself today. He’s lucky this isn’t the U.S. Open. #Wimbledon
Djokovic kept trolling the crowd in the third set with a sledge that needed no words after winning a crazy 45-shot rally. He'd already broken Bautista Agut and while serving at 4-2, was pretty happy with himself after claiming a point following a gruelling baseline exchange.
Rather than roar, as he so often does, Djokovic's face remained expressionless as he simply put one finger behind his ear, asking the crowd if he could hear it now.
Serbia's Novak Djokovic returns to Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut in a Men's singles semifinal match on day eleven of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London. Photo / AP
His reaction followed on from earlier putting a finger to his lips but his perfect comeback was winning the third set 6-3 and Djokovic had won the crowd over by the end of the match as they celebrated his victory.
One of the best rallies of the tournament: Djokovic and Bautista trading flat groundstrokes. Metronome vs Metronome. Fans start to laugh. Other fans shush them, not wanting to distract genius at work. Backhand winner down the line from Djokovic breaks the chain: Cups hand to ear
— Christopher Clarey 🇺🇸 🇫🇷 🇪🇸 (@christophclarey) July 12, 2019
Bautista Agut had to change his bucks party plans after unexpectedly making the final four of the year's third grand slam but he probably wished he was sipping pina coladas in Ibiza rather than being handed a tennis masterclass by the world No. 1 in the opening set on Centre Court.
Djokovic surged to a 3-0 lead before Bautista Agut held serve for the first time to get on the board. But he was broken again and the Serbian had no trouble closing out the first set 6-2 in just 36 minutes.
Djokovic won 93 per cent of points on his first serve in the opening set and pulled out some roaring forehand winners — both cross-court and down the line. The brilliant baseliner was just as comfortable at the net, winning eight of 12 points when he advanced up the court.
Djokovic made just five unforced errors to Bautista Agut's 11 and barely broke a sweat before beginning the second set.
But Bautista Agut hit back, breaking early to go up 3-1 before play was halted because of an issue in the crowd.
A spectator required medical attention and the match came to a stop for several minutes as paramedics attended to the fan.
By this stage Bautista Agut was returning brilliantly, particularly off his backhand wing, and gave himself two more break points before and unforced error and a Djokovic ace brought things back to deuce.
The Serb eventually held his serve and Bautista Agut did the same with ease next game to maintain his buffer and level the match.
But that's where his resistance ended as Djokovic proved too powerful in the end.
