David Goffin won the first two points he ever played at the World Tour Finals without hitting a single shot.
It went downhill in hurry once he actually had to start using his racket.
Novak Djokovic turned in an efficient performance to roll over the alternate 6-1, 6-2 in only one hour and nine minutes on Thursday afternoon. Djokovic fought off the only break point he faced and benefited from 21 unforced errors by Goffin while improving his record in London to a perfect 3-0.
The second-ranked Serb opened his final round-robin match with a pair of double-faults, but he won four straight points to hold in the first game and he mostly coasted on serve the rest of the way. Goffin did not generate a single break opportunity until the final game, but Djokovic saved it with a well-placed first serve.
“Regardless of who is across the net,” Djokovic explained, “I knew what I had to do–raise the level of performance, which I did today. I’m very glad that my game is going in the right direction. Today I felt the most comfortable, definitely, so far in the tournament.”
Goffin never got comfortable after suddenly replacing Gael Monfils, who pulled out on Wednesday night citing a rib injury. Monfils, also making his debut at the year-end championship, lost his first two matches of the tournament to Milos Raonic and Dominic Thiem.
“When you know just the evening before that you have to play, and you have to play against Novak–who won two matches already–and he’s in the competition,… (it’s) not easy,” the 11th-ranked Belgian noted. “But I tried to do my best. I didn’t feel really well; I didn’t feel the rhythm. My groundstrokes–my best weapons–were not there. It’s not easy against Novak when it’s like that.”
Djokovic is through to the semis as the top seed from Group B, but his Saturday opponent will not be determined until Friday. Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, and Kei Nishikori are part of the equation.
“Let’s see what happens tomorrow,” Djokovic said. “I’m going to obviously have my team watch the matches and see who I play against and then prepare.”
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