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Novak Djokovic said he hadn’t been feeling “very good physically” during his matches after pulling off a comeback victory against Andrey Rublev at the Rolex Paris Masters. The top seed needed a medical time-out to receive treatment on his back before coming through 5-7 7-6(3) 7-5 to book his spot in the final where he now faces Grigor Dimitrov.<\/p>\n
Djokovic won his third successive three-set match in Bercy on Sunday night, maintaining his unbeaten record in semi-finals at the tournament. But there was some concern when the 36-year-old asked for the physio to come to the court following his bathroom break after winning the second set.<\/p>\n
The world No 1 had been seen stretching out his back during the second set tiebreak and received treatment on it before getting up to play the third set, which he narrowly won when Rublev hit a double fault while serving to stay in the match. Djokovic later explained how he managed to win another tight battle again after three-set victories over Holger Rune and Tallon Griekspoor, and confessed that he hadn’t been feeling great.<\/p>\n
“Well you obviously have to keep faith and belief that you still have gas left in the tank to manage to turn things around,” the six-time Paris Masters champion said. “And that was obviously the fundamental thing today but also trying to play smart and understand tactically what kind of changes you need to make against Rublev who was in terrific form all tournament, especially today.”<\/p>\n
Click here to join our WhatsApp community to be the first to receive breaking and exclusive tennis news<\/strong><\/p>\n Just in <\/strong> Boris Becker still completed Rune job despite losing to old charge Djokovic[LATEST] <\/strong><\/p>\n Djokovic was full of praise for his opponent, who produced one of his most impressive performance both mentally and with his tennis. The world No 1 continued: “I have never faced Rublev playing so well. He was serving great, forehand – we know that he has one of the best forehands on tour – but his backhand was amazing. So he didn\u2019t really give me much room to breathe and to get close to the line to be the one that is dictating. So I had to serve well, which I did. And tiebreak was terrific, I found some great serves, great returns.”<\/p>\n Addressing his medical time-out, the Serb said it was beneficial to have the brief break as he added: “And after that a break that allowed me to kind of recuperate and go into a third set feeling a bit fresher. So I continued serving well and I was in his return games, waiting for the chances and unfortunate ending for him to finish with a double fault.”<\/p>\n Djokovic also revealed that it wasn’t the first time he struggled physically on the court as he had similar feelings during his last two victories. “But I kept going because I had a similar feeling yesterday and before yesterday to be honest I wasn\u2019t feeling very good physically on the court. But kept going and kept believing and playing point after point, waiting for the opportunities and very proud of another win,” he explained.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/72\/590x\/secondary\/5049890.jpg?r=1699128942716\")
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