Nole has advanced to the championship match at the China Open.
Novak Djokovic has reached the final of the China Open and continued his incredible run in Beijing, where he now has 33 wins and 0 losses.
The Serbian star once again produced top-class tennis. In the semi-final, he was leading world no.5 Daniil Medvedev 7-5, 5-3, and was serving for the match when the Russian was disqualified after an incident in which he accidentally hit a spectator with a ball.
The match lasted two hours and 29 minutes.
From the very beginning, both players produced high-quality and aggressive tennis. Novak tried to take control with attacking play, while Medvedev defended extremely well.
In the opening game, Novak had to save three break points. The same thing happened three games later. This time, however, he could only save the first three, and Medvedev converted his fourth chance to take a 3-2 lead. Novak immediately fought back. In the next game, he converted his third break point to level the score at 3-3. At 5-4, Novak earned a break/set point, but Medvedev escaped with some excellent serves and made it 5-5. Two games later, Novak put the pressure on again. He earned three set points in a row on Medvedev’s serve and converted the second one. After 79 minutes of intense battle, Novak won the first set 7-5 and took a 1-0 lead.
The high intensity continued in the second set. Novak had a break point in the second game but could not convert it. In the following game, he had to save six break points to hold serve. He was under pressure again in the fifth game, but survived after saving two more break points. Then, in the next game, Novak converted his second break opportunity to take a 4-2 lead. Medvedev then requested a medical timeout. After returning to the court, the Russian managed to break Novak’s serve and cut the deficit to 4-3. But Novak responded immediately, breaking Medvedev again in the next game to move ahead 5-3. While Djokovic was serving for the match, with the score at 15-15, Medvedev hit a ball towards the crowd, accidentally hitting a spectator.
Because of the incident, The Russian was disqualified and Novak sealed the win.
“A bit of a shock, to be honest,” Djokovic said. “Sorry for the person who got hit. I honestly didn’t see what happened. I hope that person is not badly injured. On the other hand, I also feel sorry for Daniil, because I know exactly how he feels to be disqualified in a big match. I was disqualified at the 2020 US Open in similar circumstances. I am sure that Daniil didn’t want to do this intentionally. It just happens. I was three points away from the win. It was a gruelling battle and I definitely didn’t want a third set. It was looking like that. I don’t know how many break points I saved, it was crazy. It’s always a big battle with Daniil and it’s so hard to play him, when he’s feeling the ball well in slower conditions with a big serve. But we move on.”
The final will be played on Tuesday at 13:00 CET. Novak’s opponent in his bid for a 102nd career title will be fifth seed Alex de Minaur.
The Australian was leading Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 3-2 in their semifinal clash, when Hurkacz retired due to injury.
Djokovic holds a 3-1 H2H record against de Minaur.
Photo: Profimedia
