LONDON • World No. 1 Novak Djokovic admitted that he needs to play cleaner tennis if he is to stay on course for a record-equalling sixth ATP Finals title.
The Serb lost for just the fourth time this year when fourth seed Daniil Medvedev beat him 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday to leave his hopes of escaping from the Tokyo 1970 group in peril.
Djokovic committed 24 unforced errors and five double faults and faces a straight shoot-out with world No. 7 Alexander Zverev today for a place in the semi-finals alongside Medvedev in London.
“I cannot allow these things to happen when I’m playing the top players in the world,” Djokovic said of losing seven games in a row after establishing a 3-2 lead over Medvedev.
“He was just better, no question about it. We started well. Up to 3-3 (in the first set) it was quite an even match but after that break he was cruising. I struggled to find the right level.”
By the time Djokovic managed to stop the rot, the 33-year-old was a set and 3-1 in arrears.
Russian Medvedev was relentless, however, and continued to boss the baseline rallies.
Only Rafael Nadal, in the French Open final, and Lorenzo Sonego, in the quarter-finals in Vienna, have got the better of Djokovic, who was defaulted at the US Open, this year.
Earlier at the empty O2 Arena, Zverev bounced back from his defeat by Medvedev to beat Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
“I’m excited for Friday,” said Zverev.
“Friday’s going to be the most difficult match-up that you can have here, against Novak.”
The German, who has won two titles in the coronavirus-truncated season, beat Djokovic in the final in London two years ago but is 3-2 behind in their head-to-head meetings.
Djokovic, who defeated Schwartzman 6-3, 6-2 in his opening match here, beat Zverev the last time they met at last year’s French Open.
In yesterday’s match, Austrian Dominic Thiem, who had already sealed a semi-final berth from the London 2020 group, lost 6-2, 7-5 to Andrey Rublev in 66 minutes.
The eighth-ranked Russian salvaged some pride in the year-end finale after suffering group defeats by Nadal and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
World No. 3 Thiem will be gunning for his second title of the year after his US Open triumph in September.
REUTERS
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