Novak Djokovic is enjoying a dominant stretch in which he has compiled a 32-2 record in his last 34 matches. He has not beaten any opponent during this hot streak worse than he beat Alexander Zverev at the Shanghai Masters.
Following a 6-2, 6-1 destruction at the current world No. 1’s hands in Shanghai, Zverev will get another shot–like it or not–when they meet again during round-robin competition at the Nitto ATP Finals on Wednesday afternoon. They have squared off on just two previous occasions, with Zverev triumphing 6-4, 6-3 in last year’s Rome title match before Djokovic’s recent steamroll in Shanghai.
The 31-year-old ran into a brief stumbling block in the form of a Paris final loss to Karen Khachanov, but he never looked 100 percent throughout the week and showed signs of fatigue following a 7-6(6), 5-7, 7-6(3) defeat of Roger Federer in the semis.
Although returns are early, it is already fair to say that Djokovic is back in business in London. The top seed had no trouble taking down John Isner 6-4, 6-3 on Monday night, breaking perhaps the tour’s best serve three times. A win at the O2 Arena is nothing new for Djokovic, who is now 32-11 lifetime at the year-end championship with five titles and one runner-up performance.
Zverev is making his third Nitto ATP Finals appearance at just 21 years old and his bid for a first-ever semifinal run is off to a strong start. The world No. 5 scraped past Marin Cilic 7-6(5), 7-6(1) on Monday afternoon, recovering from a break down in each set. He is now 10-4 this fall and has reached at least the quarterfinals of three straight events.
“It should be a great match,” Djokovic commented. “We [have] played against each other only twice. He wasn’t at his best (in Shanghai). I expect him to play better.”
“The court is difficult; very fast,” Zverev said of the O2 conditions. “And it’s very high-bouncing, as well. It’s more difficult than in other tournaments, so everybody has to kind of find their rhythm in the first match. But at the end of the day, it was a pretty good match in the end. I’m happy to get the win; that’s the most important thing.”
What it means is that the German’s semifinal hopes will be alive and well even if Wednesday goes as expected: a routine, straight-set success for Djokovic.
Pick: Djokovic in 2
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Not a fan of Zverev, so Djokovic in 2. He’s looking very good!
Also not a fan of Zverev! His finger wagging and gesticulating to the crowd really get on my nerves! Go Nole!!☺
He’s such a brat Amy! He’s so arrogant that he doesn’t even consider himself part of the NextGen and criticizes everyone like he’s a role model for everyone! He also said recently that he fells like he’s competing for Slams with Fedalovic,LOL. He may be living in a parallel universe I think.
He should look up at Khachanov and many others to learn how to behave in a tennis court!
https://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/Tennis_Interviews/62734/alexander-zverev-criticises-stefanos-tsitsipas-frances-tiafoe/
Nice to see you back gaviria!! Have missed you!
Zverev is beyond irritating…
He said he wants to be on a par with Fed, Rafa and Nole!!! Hahaha!!
It has been sad times for me with Rafa being injured time and time again at this part of the season 🙁
Zverev will never be on par with the ATG,and with that forehand,I don’t believe he’s gonna be much of a threat next year at Slams tbh.
Well if rafa comes back fresh and strong in the NY that’s the main thing for me! I hope he has time to work on his serve in the off season..
Zverev is very erratic on the fh side. Isn’t it just damn silly of him to say he wants to be an ATG on a level with fedalovic!!imagine rafa saying similar even though at his age he had already won slams!
I don’t like Zverev at all, but I think he can be competitive here.
Sasha looks lethargic, not moving well. I prefer Tsitsipas and his movement and attitude over Sasha!
Sasha is poor at the net compared to Tsitsipas and that’s despite he playing doubles with his Brother so often! He really has to rely heavily on his big serve and big groundstrokes.
He’s not going to beat Djoko staying at the baseline all day; like I said before, the Djoko is playing unbelievable defensive tennis these days, hardly anyone can beat him.
Sasha w/the upset…in 3.
Come on Nole!!
We are having a very sub-standard TOP tens now (except for the big three). It’s no wonder the big three are occupying the top three positions and are way ahead in terms of ranking points despite two of them missing chunks of the season and the remaining one doing poorly first half of the season.
I mean, after failing to break serve, you lost your own serve to lose the set, and that’s due to all your own faults! What a joke of a TOP ten!
Yep. Zverev has to continue to improve and add variety to his game. He’s got talent, just need to sharpen his skills.
So unidimensional and boring.
To me Sasha’s talent is in the way he serves and the way he hits his groundstrokes. In terms of tennis acumen, I’m sorry, no, he’s not that talented.
He doesn’t have the court sense or court craft to realise when he has to move forward, what’s the right shots to make, doesnt have good court positioning, and not good at anticipating his opponent’s shots. When he did move to the net, he wasn’t good enough to control the point from there. I find Tsitsipas better than him when at the net; Tsitsipas knows when exactly to move forward and when he’s there, knows what shot to make to win the points.
I don’t even need to talk about a 17 yo Rafa, who’s already so good with his court craft that he knew exactly when to move to the net to win points (and that’s against the then no.1 player Fed!). Even a normally one dimensional hard hitting Khachanov could add in so much varieties into his game and could approach the net so well against Djoko to win many points there, Sasha OTOH, hasn’t done much to improve his game and may have actually gone backwards.
If only Nole had served like this against Rafa at wimby!
Haha! Flags being waved here saying “we miss you Rafa”
Brilliant!☺
I hope for Khachanov and Tsitsipas to be in the TOP ten next year, and hope the likes of Isner, Cilic and Sasha to drop out of TOP ten.
Sasha has many points to defend during the clay season, hope that he loses many points there and drops down the rankings. He’s just too one dimensional, like Cilic.
at the end of the year it doesn’t matter what time of the season you had to defend most of your points
You think you’re saying something Lucky doesn’t already know?
Wasn’t her point.
Well done Nole!
Buzz off Zverev!☺