Djokovic goes down to Bautista Agut, Murray’s No. 1 chances improve

Novak Djokovic’s post-French Open slump–relative to his lofty standards–continued with a 6-4, 6-4 loss to Roberto Bautista Agut in the semifinals of the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Sunday afternoon. Djokovic dropped serve four times and saved only one of five break points before going down in one hour and 48 minutes.

The top-seeded Serb quickly fell behind by a set and a break, just as he did against Mischa Zverev in an uninspiring quarterfinal performance. Djokovic battled back to prevail over the qualifier and he appeared to be in line for the same at Bautista Agut’s expense when he broken back for 3-4. But one final service donation at 4-5 proved to be the nail in the coffin for Djokovic. Bautista Agut capitalized on his fourth match point at ad-out with a winning forehand pass.

“He was a better player, no question about it,” Djokovic assessed. “In important moments, he was more consistent. He was more solid.”

That result not only makes Andy Murray a heavy favorite in Sunday’s title match, but it also gives the Scot a better chance of finishing the year as the No. 1-ranked player in the world. Although Murray still has plenty of work to do in that effort, he took another step in the right direction by beating Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-3 in the second semifinal.

“It was a tough match today; probably the hardest one I had this week,” the world No. 2 admitted after getting the job done in one hour and 43 minutes. “Because of the conditions, it felt unbelievably humid on the court. I don’t know if that’s because the stadium was more full and therefore it was warmer.

“It was tough. There were lots of long rallies and a lot of ups and downs. He went up a break in the first set and came back at the end of both sets. It was hard. (There were) a lot of long games and I was behind on a few of my service games, too. It was a good one to get through in two sets.”

If Murray triumphs on Sunday, he will be only 915 points behind Djokovic in the 2016 race. Among the tournaments remaining on the schedule is a Masters 1000 in Paris and the World Tour Finals.

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