Novak Djokovic remained heading in the right direction for a record-equalling sixth ATP Tour Finals title after a 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (8/6) win over Taylor Fritz in Turin on Saturday. Djokovic dismissed his bruising encounter with Daniil Medvedev the day earlier than to boss the semi-final towards the ninth-seeded American. The 35-year-old Serb will face the winner of the second semi-final between Andrey Rublev and Casper Ruud. Victory in Sunday’s closing will see him equal Roger Federer’s haul of six wins within the event comprising the highest eight gamers on this planet this season.

“I had to fight to survive,” stated Djokovic, who has now reached the ultimate of the season-ending occasion eight instances and final received in 2015.

“I didn’t feel very reactive or very comfortable. I knew coming into today’s match from yesterday’s gruelling battle against Medvedev, it would take me some time to adjust and find the dynamic movement I need against Fritz, who is one of the best servers on the Tour.”

Djokovic has now crushed 25-year-old Fritz, in all six of their conferences.

“I’m extremely upset about the match, more so about the things that happen in a match that I can’t control,” stated the American, who was taking part in for the primary time within the Masters event having taken benefit of the withdrawal of world primary Carlos Alcaraz.

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“But I’m sure in two weeks from now I’ll look back and I’ll say, yeah, like it was a really great week.

“Not solely did I get the prospect to play the World Tour Finals, I made it out of the group, had two good wins.

“I think my takeaways are that when Novak has played, he’s been the best player.

“There’s little doubt about that. When he hasn’t performed, which is lots of the 12 months, we have seen lots of totally different outcomes as a result of while you take him out of the equation, I believe everyone else taking part in is extraordinarily shut in stage.

“There’s 15 to 20 people that can all beat each other on any given day given the circumstances. That’s the reason for a lot of these different results, different people winning. It’s just how it happens.”

Djokovic will goal for his second main title of the 12 months, after Wimbledon, having missed a big a part of the season, together with the Australian Open and the US Open, for his refusal to take the covid vaccine.

The Serb held on largely due to the effectivity of his serve — he received 85 p.c of the factors performed on his first serve within the first set and 75 p.c all through the match, and his capacity to ship the deadly blow on the proper time.

Fritz didn’t make many errors, however they had been all closely penalised.

Djokovic is chasing his fifth tour-level title of the season after Rome, Wimbledon, Tel Aviv and Astana and now holds a 45-17 profession document on the ATP Finals, which he received in 2008 in Shanghai and in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 in London).

“I’m very happy to be able to compete for another big trophy, one of the biggest ones that we have in our sport,” stated Djokovic.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to play at the level that I’ve played most of the matches this week and get a trophy.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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