Djokovic Reaches 50th ATP Masters 1000 Final

Novak Djokovic has enjoyed great success at ATP Masters 1000 events throughout his career, lifting 33 trophies across all nine events.

On Saturday at the Rolex Paris Masters, the World No. 1 enjoyed another milestone Masters 1000 moment by reaching his 50th championship match at the level with a 7-6(5), 6-4 win against Grigor Dimitrov.

The World No. 1 extended his unbeaten record in Bercy semi-finals to six matches, winning 85 per cent of first-serve points (34/40) to reach his sixth final at the event. Djokovic owns a 10-1 record at this event after reaching the semi-finals.

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With his ninth victory in 10 FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings against Dimitrov, Djokovic is through to his sixth final of the year (4-1). The four-time Paris champion is tied with Dominic Thiem (5-1) and Roger Federer (4-2) in second place on the 2019 final appearances leaderboard. Daniil Medvedev has reached nine finals (4-5) this year.

Djokovic is aiming to finish as year-end No. 1 in the ATP Rankings for a record-tying sixth time. The 32-year-old needs to remain within 1,500 ATP Race To London points of Rafael Nadal this week in order to have a chance at surpassing the Spaniard at the Nitto ATP Finals.

At the start of Saturday play, Djokovic was 1,280 points behind the Spaniard in the Race. Nadal will meet Denis Shapovalov in the second semi-final for a chance to meet Djokovic in the championship match. As a result of Djokovic’s semi-final victory, Nadal will need to lift his first title at this event to clinch the year-end No. 1 position this week.

Djokovic leads Nadal 28-26 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, with their pair splitting their 2019 encounters 1-1. The World No. 1 is unbeaten in three FedEx ATP Head2Head clashes against Shapovalov.

In a first set dominated by serve, neither player was able to create a break-point opportunity en route to the tie-break. With Dimitrov leading 5/3, Djokovic raised his level and refused to miss. The World No. 1 soaked up the aggression from Dimitrov’s racquet, extending rallies with consistent depth on his groundstrokes and great defensive skill to eventually extract errors and take the opening set.

Djokovic returned with depth and proved more consistent than his opponent on his forehand side to claim the only break of the match at 2-2. The World No. 1 maintained his advantage to serve for the match at 5-4 and booked his spot in the final with a cross-court forehand.

Dimitrov ends his 2019 ATP Tour season with a 22-21 tour-level record, highlighted by runs to the US Open and Paris semi-finals. At the Erste Bank Open in Vienna last week, the Bulgarian recorded his 300th tour-level victory.

from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/36qgPLX