Djokovic eliminated despite downing Nadal
Novak Djokovic
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Novak Djokovic breezed past the out-of-sorts Rafael Nadal with a 7-6, 6-3 victory that left him in with a fighting chance of squaring up to Roger Federer in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Condemning Nadal to a third consecutive straight sets defeat at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, the defending champion could only progress if Robin Soderling beat Nikolay Davydenko later on Friday evening.
But a 7-6(4) 4-6 6-3 victory for Nikolay Davydenko saw the Russian join the Swede in the final four, ending the Serb’s marathon season.
Though destined to play no more part in the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals after suffering straight sets defeats in each of his opening round robin matches, bizarrely, Nadal took to the court looking like a man with something to lose.
Enduring the uncharacteristically slow start that has been a constant feature of his game in London, a nervy Nadal suffered two early breaks of serve to Djokovic’s one. A double-fault at 30-40 in the fourth game handed the Serb a second break and a 3-1 first set advantage.
But when a Djokovic double-fault at 30-30 in the seventh provided Nadal with an opportunity to break level, the Spaniard duly converted, drawing the Serb into an error with a short ball as the man in red tamely pushed a half court backhand into the net.
With Nadal desperately looking to recapture his old form ahead of Spain’s Davis Cup Final against the Czech Republic on December 4, the marginally brighter Djokovic looked most likely to break again.
Despite several shanks off the racket and a series of unforced errors from both men, proceedings remained on serve until 6-6. In the ensuing tiebreak, Djokovic again raced into an early lead, approaching the net on several occasions to pressurise Nadal into finding a winner.
Still searching for a return to his best after returning from injury, Nadal has never looked so short of confidence on court and the winners rarely came. Building up a 6-3 advantage in the tiebreak, Djokovic looked home and dry in the first set, before a mini-revival from Nadal brought up 6-5, but the Serb held out to clinch the first set when Nadal dragged a loose forehand wide of the line.
Tweaking his back during the first game of the second set, Nadal had the trainer out on court two games later. Following a quick interlude for treatment, Djokovic immediately brought up two break points. Saving the first with a deftly sweet backhand volley, Nadal found the net with the second to hand Djokovic a 3-1, and seemingly unassailable second set lead.
With any hopes of a Nadal revival fading fast, Djokovic engineered the opportunity of a second break at 4-1, shunting Nadal on to the back foot with some powerful hitting off the forehand. But Nadal dug deep and refused to roll over, throwing down two deep, wide serves that forced errors from Djokovic.
From 5-3 on serve, the inevitable Djokovic victory took a while. The Serb missed twice to hand Nadal a lifeline and a 30-0 advantage, before squeezing his way back to 30-30 courtesy of a drop shot that struck the net cord before dying at the feet of the lunging Spaniard.
Nadal showed a flash of brilliance to take the score to deuce with a forehand down the line after an epic rally, before dogged work and a series of errors from Djokovic brought up an opportunity for Nadal to break. Serving his way out of trouble, Djokovic brought up another match point with a well placed serve, before rallying his opponent off the court on match point, condemning Nadal to his third consecutive defeat at the World Tour Finals.
In the earlier doubles, seventh seeds Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram beat Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes 7-6(1) 6-4 to qualify for the last four from doubles Group B.
