The Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic guaranteed this Saturday for the eighth time the presence in the final of the ATP Finals, by defeating the American Taylor Fritz, in two sets, in Turin, Italy. In an unusual eighth place in the classificationDjokovic beat Fritz, ninth and rookie in this tournament, 7-6 (7-5) and 7-6 (8-6), in one hour and 55 minutes.
After losing in the semifinals in the last two seasons, Djokovic secured his return to the final of the ATP tour’s end-of-season tournament, which brings together the eight best players of the year.
In the first half, Djokovic got a break to the fifth game, but saw the American respond in kind soon after, with the establish to decide tie-breaker, favorable to the Serbian. Fritz was not afraid of defeat in the first establish and came on in the second to break Djokovic’s serve. However, when serving to close the set he made two errors and allowed the Serbian equalizer.
In the tiebreaker, the more experienced Djokovic prevailed and achieved his fourth victory in as many meetings in Turin, remaining, after six games, one hundred percent winner over Fritz.
Already with five ATP Finals titles, Djokovic can, on Sunday, equal the already retired Swiss Roger Federer as the tennis player with the most titles, also taking off from the Americans Ivan Lendl and Pete Sampras. The last obstacle to that desire will be the Norwegian Casper Ruud, fourth in the ranking, or the Russian Andrey Rublev, seventh, who meet today in the other semifinal.
In the couples draw, the American Rajeev Ram and the British Joe Salisbury qualified for the final, after beating the Dutchman Wesley Koolhof and the British Neal Skupski, 7-6 (9-7) and 6-4.
Source: Observadora
