For the second time this yr, Alexander Zverev has not given Novak Djokovic an opportunity to play for the massive trophy. Following his victory over the top-ranked participant within the semi-finals of the Tokyo Olympics, Zverev defeated Djokovic 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-3 in the identical leg of the ATP Finals on Saturday.
“Every time we play against each other, it’s of a very high standard,” Zverev mentioned. “This yr we performed one another 5 occasions. … every time we performed for a number of hours and it was very bodily.”
The end result means Djokovic can’t match Roger Federer’s report of six titles on the finish of the season for the highest eight gamers. At least not this yr. Instead, Zverev will tackle quantity two Daniil Medvedev in Sunday’s ultimate.
Regarding Djokovic, who shared a report of 20 Grand Slam titles with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, Zverev mentioned: “He is the greatest player ever and I think people forget that sometimes.” US Open champion Medvedev beat first-time qualifier Casper Rudd 6-4, 6-2 as he seems to be to defend his title after 12 years in London within the first version of the match in Turin.
Medvedev has received his final 5 encounters with Zverev, together with a round-robin match earlier this week that was determined in a third-set tiebreaker. Zverev received the occasion in 2018.
Djokovic made a collection of non-specific grounding errors in the course of the third set to offer Zverev a decisive break. Zverev held his nerve whereas saving a break level, earlier than serving a slicing ace down the tee on his first match level.
“I had a really bad game in the third set – three forehands, one backhand unforced errors, from a really easy position,” Djokovic mentioned. The tone of the match, nevertheless, was set within the first set, when Zverev saved a set level at 4-5.
In the tiebreaker of the primary set, a problem from Zverev compelled Djokovic to hit second serve and resulted in a double fault. Then a backhand drop shot from Djokovic clipped the online and jumped over, permitting Zverev to run it down and reply with a sharply angled forehand cross-court winner.
At 5-4 within the tiebreaker, Zverev crushed a backhand winner to finish an extended rally, then scored an enormous serve out on his first set level that Djokovic couldn’t return.
At the US Open in September, Medvedev received his first trophy at a Major by defeating the Serb within the ultimate, ending Djokovic’s bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam. Directing the sport from the beginning towards Rudd, Medvedev improved to 9-0 within the ATP Finals after main 0-3 in early 2019.
An inside forehand winner from Medvedev ended the 32-shot rally, breaking early within the opening set. Then Medvedev started to vary his recreation additional with nets and drop photographs as he broke once more in the course of the second set.
Roode broke down once more when he interrupted a degree to problem a name, which was held below overview, permitting Medvedev to dismiss the match. Medvedev, who did not hit a single break level and received 11 of 15 factors on the web, ended it with a superbly executed serve and volley on his first match level.
Rudd, who misplaced to Djokovic in straight units in his opening round-robin match, mentioned that after being crushed effectively by the highest two gamers “I want to take revenge and be a better player for next year.”
Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury will face Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut within the doubles ultimate.
,
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
