PARIS, June 7-- Men's singles defending champion Novak Djokovic failed to make into the semifinals as he lost to Austrian promising star Dominic Thiem, while women's No. 3 seed Simona Halep took on a historic comeback to secure her place in last four at the 2017 French Open here on Wednesday. The titleholder, with his lackluster performance, was shocked by sixth seed Thiem 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-0. The Austrian avenged his recent loss to Djokovic in the semifinals in Rome with a total of 38 winners despite 28 unforced errors, while the Serbian only had 18 winners against 35 unforced errors. "It's hard to comment on the third set. Obviously nothing was going in my way and everything in his way. Just a pretty bad set," said Djokovic, who was expected to drop outside of top two on ATP rankings for the first time since July 2011. Djokovic was also the only top four seed of the tournament that failed to secure a semifinal spot, as Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal all went through. World No. 1 Murray came back from 6-2 down in the first set against Asian top-ranked Kei Nishikori to set it 6-1, 7-6 (0), 6-1 in the following three sets. Murray set up a semifinal clash with Swiss Wawrinka, who swept the seventh-seeded Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-3, 6-1. "I didn't expect that score, but I was confident with my game. I knew he was playing good since the beginning of the tournament, but I was also confident with what I was doing," said Wawrinka in a confident manner. |