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French Open: Novak Djokovic out as Marco Cecchinato wins epic 4-setter to enter semifinal

Marco Cecchinato clinched a 6-3, 7-6, 1-6, 7-6 win against Novak Djokovic.

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Novak Djokovic's dream of capturing his second French Open title suffered a premature end at hands of his friend and training partner Marco Cecchinato on Tuesday. 

Cecchinato, who had never gone past the first round of a Grand Slam until this summer, pulled off a huge upset against the former world number 1 as he clinched a 6-3, 7-6, 1-6, 7-6 (13-11) victory on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.

Although the Italian and the Serb had never before met on the tour, the pair had practised together on a number of occasions.

Cecchinato, ranked No 72 in the world, has knocked out two top 10 players to reach the last eight.

Pablo Carreno Busta and David Goffin were the Italian's shock victims - and now he has added Djokovic to that list.

Novak Djokovic lost the opening set 6-3 with the 12-times major winner appearing to struggle with a neck problem midway through the contest. 

He seemed to return back to his best in the second set but it was not enought to keep Cecchinato away as he claimed the second set in a tiebreak. The second set saw some of best tennis played in the tournament so far.

Djokovic then clawed his way back into the quarter-final winning the third set 6-1. He looked set to claim the fourth as well leading 4-1 with three break points. However, Cecchinato came back to save his serve and then broke Novak to take it to the tie-break. 

The tie-break saw some of the best tennis of the match as Djokovic pulled off some incredible points to stay in the match after going down 3-0 in the tie-break. While Novak saved several match points in the game, he failed to capitalize on the set points also.

He seemed to have won at 10-9 when the crowd's noise distracted him and he lost the point.

Cecchinato kept coming back and held his own to win the tie-break 13-11. 

He become the first Italian man to reach a Grand Slam semi-final in 40 years. The last Italian man to take part in a major semi-final was Corrado Barazzutti at the 1978 French Open.

Cecchinato broke down in tears after the match as Djokovic walked down to his side of court and give him a hug and words of congratulations.  

Cecchinato is the lowest ranked player left in the competition. He will now face Dominic Thiem in the semifinal who beat Alexander Zverev 6-4, 6-2, 6-1.

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