Djokovic secures semifinal spot in London by holding off Raonic

Novak Djokovic may not be the world No. 1 anymore, but he is the only one through to the semis of the World Tour Finals following the first three days of action at the O2 Arena in London.

Djokovic punched his ticket to the weekend by holding off Milos Raonic 7-6(6), 7-6(5) on Tuesday night and clinching the top seed out of Group B. The Serb finished with only two more total points won than Raonic, but he came up big–or benefited from Raonic gifts–on most of the critical points before getting the job done in two hours and 14 minutes.

“I think very few points separated us tonight,” Djokovic stated–and correctly so. “It really could have gone either way. I was fortunate to get through the first-set tiebreaker. I was down very early in both tiebreaks tonight. But I just managed to stay committed and put pressure on his second serves.”

A second tiebreaker should not been required, at least not in the eventual winner’s mind. Djokovic twice led by a break in set two only to give it back on both occasions. With momentum in hand having battled his way into another ‘breaker, Raonic seized an early mini-break in the tiebreaker–just as he had done in the first set. But the world No. 4 could not remain in front and a couple of costly unforced errors sealed his fate.

“I should have done my job earlier, to be honest,” Djokovic admitted. “I’m not very pleased to drop my serve twice against Milos, especially the second time. I was (up) 4-3, 30-love, then just (committed) four pretty bad unforced errors. Credit to him for really hanging in there, putting pressure (on me), (and) being aggressive. All in all, two tiebreaks against a big server is a great win and great confidence boost.”

“Overall I created a lot of opportunities,” Raonic reflected. “I did a lot of good things; a lot of things to be proud of…. If I should have won it, I probably would have. I could have won it. I gave myself some chances there. He played well in most of those chances.”

The Canadian, who opened with a win over Gael Monfils, is now 1-1 in group play and will face Dominic Thiem on Thursday for a place in the semifinals. Thiem bounced back from a three-set loss to Djokovic by beating Monfils 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 on Tuesday afternoon.