Djokovic one win from Federer’s record
Tennis superstar Novak Djokovic is on the brink of ending a long wait to equal a Roger Federer record after moving to within one win of a sixth ATP Finals title.
Despite being considered as the best player on an indoor hard court in recent times, the 21-times grand-slam champion from Serbia has underperformed at the season-ending championships since last winning the trophy in 2015. Often he has been fatigued come the end of a long and relentless period on the tour.
This year is different. After missing out on several tournaments because of his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19, Djokovic believes he is far more physically fresh than usual at this stage of the season. This has been evident on the court this week in the way he managed to recover from a gruelling three-hour group stage win against Daniil Medvedev on Friday to beat America’s Taylor Fritz 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6) in the semi-finals the next day.
At the age of 35, Djokovic becomes the second-oldest finalist in the 52-year history of the tournament — only six days short of the 1978 runner-up Arthur Ashe — and now has the opportunity to move clear of Ivan Lendl and Pete Sampras by drawing level with Federer on six ATP Finals triumphs. On Sunday he will play Casper Ruud, the world No 4 from Norway who defeated Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-4.
“I’m very happy to be able to compete for another big trophy, one of the biggest ones that we have in our sport,” Djokovic said. “So far it is a great week for me. Four out of four wins. Of course, in the last match of the season I’m going to give it my all.
“I like the fact that I was able to win against Medvedev after a very long battle, then come back the next day after not too much time for recovery and be able to win another tight match against Fritz in two sets. That’s something that has in a way defined my career over the years. I’ve had similar situations where I was able to bounce back and really make some big wins.”
The match was on course for a third set when Fritz moved 5-3 ahead in the second and served for it at 5-4. But the 25-year-old world No 9 was left furious after a spectator distracted him by loudly shouting during a key point at 30-30. Djokovic broke back and sealed victory in the tie-break.
“I kind of got screwed and there’s nothing that really can be done about it,” Fritz said afterwards. “You get used to playing in absolute silence your whole career. It’s normal that the crowd maybe makes a noise when there’s a crazy point going on. But someone just flat-out screaming to purposely try to throw you off, it’s not something you’re ever used to. When it happens, it’s an absolute shock. It’s disgusting then.”
Joe Salisbury has the chance to become the first ever British player to win the ATP Finals doubles after he and his American partner Rajeev Ram defeated the world No 1s Neal Skupski and Wesley Koolhof 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 to reach the final for the second consecutive year. They face the Croatian duo Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic, who knocked out Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 10-6.
