World No.1 Novak Djokovic keeps going forward in the year-end world No.1 race when he apparently has taken his revenge on Stefanos Tsitispas for Shanghai loss beating him 6-1, 6-2 in only 58 minutes.
The Serbian player was taking the upper hand throughout the whole match nearly with his clinical shots all over the court, leaving no room for the Greek to get into the match.
Djokovic revealed that he studied his opponent so well prior to their meeting in Paris as he lost to him last month in Shanghai
“I played one of the best matches of the season. I prepared myself very well for this match. I lost to Stefanos about three weeks ago in Shanghai. And obviously I went through the videos and understanding on what I did well, what I didn’t do so well, what I can do better.”
Tsitispas never found his momentum in this match or we probably can say that his opponent never let him, pushing him all the time with superb shots. The Greek in return seemed to be more aggressive as a strategy to halt Djokovic’s dominance on the court, but that offensive style came with too many unforced errors; committing 20 ones, mostly with the forehand side, to only 10 for world No.1.
“I managed to really start off well and didn’t really allow him too many opportunities to really come back.” Djokovic said about pushing consistently Stistispas during the match.
He continued “At the beginning of the second, it was very important for me to get an early break, which I did. And after that, you know, I just, you know, kind of went for a lot of shots and it worked. You know, I served well. I read his serve very well, as well. Put him under pressure constantly.”
Djokovic hit 18 winners and got all his net points won 9/9, his service game today was brilliant seeing him not a single break point with 79% of points won on his first serve and a very high second serve percentage as well of 77%, unlike the Greek who had a very poor second serve efficacy winning only 33% on it and relatively low first serve of 63%.
The Serb, who is battling to end as world No.1 for the 6th time to tie Pete Sampras’ record, converted 4 break points out of 9 ones he got during the match to move on next opponent, a familiar face met before 9 times with Novak winning 8 out of them, Grigor Dimitrov in the semis.
“The last three months have been quite good for him results-wise. You know, beating Roger in US Open was a huge confidence booster for him, I’m sure. And he’s been playing some terrific tennis this week. I saw him play the last couple of days. He seems to really like the conditions here.” Said Novak about his opponent Grigor Dimitrov.
World No.1 thinks that the surface in Paris Masters suits his next opponent game style more than other surfaces “It’s just that I think his game is more suitable for the quicker surfaces”
It wasn’t a good day obviously for Stefanos Tsitsipas who has an even head to head profile against Djokovic after this loss with 2 wins for each.
We can say after this match that world No.1 Novak Djokovic has leveled up his performance hugely, committing less unforced errors, defending from the baseline so much better and hitting very accurate shots in tight angles, his serve as well has got improved so much. It could be that he is used to the fast hard-court of Paris this year more now and also he is recovering well from his illness as he said “It’s okay. It’s okay. I’m getting there step by step.”
