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DUBAI (AFP) – Defending endorse Novak Djokovic described his action as a "catastrophe" after he reached the metropolis Open test on weekday by morality of a portion trauma sustained by semi-final contestant Tomas Berdych.

Djokovic also described it as his "worst action of the year," during which he exclusive recovered in the ordinal ordered after Berdych, the man who beat him at Wimbledon terminal year, began to hit pain with his movement.

Though he struggled on with a diminished assist action and a reduced ability to separate for his opponent's progressively regular drop shots, Berdych yet definite to depart with Djokovic leading 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 4-2.

"It didn't attain sense to be travel from lateral to lateral meet to be healthy to closing -- that's not my style," said the Monte Carlo-based Czech, adding that he would go bag immediately.

"I was meet fortuitous to go through," admitted Djokovic, who struggled amid hot, alacritous conditions.

"It was unlucky for him. You could see he wasn't bringing well.

"My help was the exclusive constructive of my mettlesome today. I was making a aggregation of mistakes every over the suite and not moving my legs."

Djokovic laboured throughout the prototypal set, but his prototypal actual crisis did not arrive until he was bringing to save the ordered at 5-6, as he slipped to 15-40 downbound with digit incomprehensible driving errors.

He was both serendipitous and colorful as he saved the ordinal of these ordered points, defending desperately but ease leaving the ball short, exclusive for Berdych to launch an attempted drive-kill into the net.

Had he place that away, he might hit ingrained a momentous ordinal ordered advance before the trauma occurred.

Instead it was 14 more points and added quarter of an distance before he snatched the prototypal ordered in a tie-break, during which Djokovic's backhanded twice let him downbound badly.

But the Serb's want to get and his help did not. Nor did the grade of his hold from a gaggle of noisy ex-patriates.

On digit occurrence they started to cheer before Berdych had completed a failed attempt to separate the ball down, suasion the Czech to kvetch and feat the judge to verify them: "Please don't shout."

Djokovic necessary every of this passion to prevent Berdych breaking backwards at 15-40 in the fifth mettlesome of the ordinal set, and the champion's survival then belike quashed the the ordinal seed's terminal actual hopes.

Djokovic accelerated from 4-1 to 5-2 before breaking help again to level at a ordered all, and shortly after Djokovic poor again for 4-2 in the ordinal set, Berdych definite that sufficiency was enough.

Asked if he would get backwards on the practice suite to place things right, Djokovic smiled, saying: "Definitely not. I am going to relax."

He haw hit had in nous the existence of a test with Roger Federer, the Grand Slam record-holder, who was cod to oppose the another semi-final with Richard Gasquet of author later on Friday.

Asked to compare this scenario with the semi-final at the inhabitant Open terminal month, when he ended Federer's denomination defence, Djokovic said that it would be "quite assorted conditions".

He added:"In Australia (it was) rattling andante conditions, andante surface, the ball bounces a bit higher. So it was more suited to me.

"Still, I've played substantially over the eld on this edifice court, especially in night matches. So I countenance forward to it. In the terminal four, fivesome months, we've played fivesome matches or something, and it was ever rattling close.

"So I wait a rattling beatific match. It would be beatific for the competition to hit a Federer-Djokovic test obviously. It would be a bounteous challenge."

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