The world No. 1 has become the No. 1 qualifier for semifinal Saturday at the Nitto ATP Finals.
Novak Djokovic punched his ticket to the last four with a straight-set victory over Alexander Zverev on Wednesday afternoon, which eventually clinched his top-two spot in Group A when Marin Cilic beat John Isner in three sets a few hours later.
The seventh consecutive straight-set match inside the O2 Arena–13th consecutive if you include doubles–went Djokovic’s way via a commanding 6-4, 6-1 scoreline.
Only at 4-4 in the first set was there any real drama. Zverev got a look at two break points that would have given him a 5-4 lead and allowed him to serve for the opener. However, Djokovic fought off one with a service winner and another following an extended rally that ended with the German sending a backhand lob just wide. That proved to be Zverev’s last gasp, as he double-faulted at 4-5, 30-40 to end the set and then disappeared in the second.
“Obviously I had chances in the first set,” the 21-year-old reflected. “If I break him at 4-all, we’ll see where the match goes. I think the match was much closer than the score says; for sure I feel that way…. If I made the break, it goes the other direction a little bit; I’m serving for the set. Even though I lost that game, I still [felt] very comfortable that I [could] hold. But it happens. He’s No. 1 in the world for a reason.”
“It seemed like Sascha was not feeling really great; definitely not playing well, especially from the back of the court,” Djokovic noted. “He made a lot of errors. (It) wasn’t a great quality tennis match, to be honest.”
The top-seeded Serb won’t have to be great against Cilic on Friday to keep his London hopes alive because all he needed to clinch a semifinal appearance was one set from Isner on Wednesday night. Isner bagged that right away–taking a tiebreaker against the Croat before eventually falling 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-4.
A surprising run of three consecutive service breaks against perhaps the tour’s biggest server made the difference for Cilic late in the second and early in the third. The world No. 7 dropped only three points in his last four service games to wrap up his comeback win.
“It’s very weird to think I’ve lost twice but still have a shot (at the semifinals),” Isner noted. “I guess that’s the advantage of having a guy like Novak in your group. I have an objective, for sure; we’ll see if I can do it. It’s going to be very tough (against Zverev), no doubt.”
All eight players–four in each group–are still mathematically alive heading into the final two days of round-robin competition.
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Nice win for Cilic, wasn’t sure how John was going to fair after his post last night about his friend. Had to be tough.
Djoko was right, his match vs Sasha was not of high quality. As Ive mentioned earlier, Sasha lacked the tennis acumen to know how to play the right shots at the right time; he had his chances but he botched them – should go DTL for eg yet he chose to go CC when Djoko was expecting it; should play a DTL passing shot yet he chose a lob that went over the sideline. Not very bright imo for someone tipped to be the next big thing after the big three.
I would add that Sasha doesn’t have good reflexes, unlike Tsitsipas or even a Khachanov; is slow to react or he maybe doesn’t have good enough anticipation skills.
Novak in 2; The Big Dawg in 3.