DJOKOVIC FIRST TO CLINCH SEMIFINAL SPOT AT WORLD TOUR FINALS AFTER BEATING RAONIC IN TWO TIEBREAKERS

Written by: Staff on 15th November 2016

DJOKOVIC FIRST TO CLINCH SEMIFINAL SPOT AT WORLD TOUR FINALS AFTER BEATING RAONIC IN TWO TIEBREAKERS

epa05633096 Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns the ball against Milos Raonic of Canada during their men's singles match at the ATP World Tour finals tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, 15 November 2016. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA |

By Ricky Dimon

Novak Djokovic will be a part of the weekend at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, as he clinched the top spot out of Group B with a 7-6(6), 7-6(5) victory over Milos Raonic on Tuesday night. Djokovic won just two more total points than Raonic but won most of the crucial ones before prevailing in two hours and 14 minutes.

“I think very few points separated us tonight,” Djokovic said, and correctly. “It really could have gone either way. I was fortunate to get through the first-set tiebreaker. I was down very early in both tiebreaks tonight. But I just managed to stay committed and put pressure on his second serves.”

Of course, it never should have progressed to a second tiebreaker. The second-ranked Serb twice led by a break in set two but gave it back both times. With momentum in hand, Raonic earned an early mini-breaker in the ‘breaker–just as he had done in the opening set. But the Canadian could not remain in front and a couple of costly unforced errors sealed his fate.

“I should have done my job earlier, to be honest,” Djokovic continued. “I’m not very pleased to drop my serve twice against Milos, especially the second time. I was (up) 4-3, 30-love, then just (committed) four pretty bad unforced errors. Credit to him for really hanging in there, putting pressure (on me), (and) being aggressive. All in all, two tiebreaks against a big server is a great win and great confidence boost.”

Milos Raonic of Canada returns the ball against Novak Djokovic of Serbia during their men’s singles match at the ATP World Tour finals tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, 15 November 2016. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA

“Overall I created a lot of opportunities,” Raonic noted. “I did a lot of good things; a lot of things to be proud of…. If I should have won it, I probably would have. I could have won it. I gave myself some chances there. He played well in most of those chances.”

No team in the Group B doubles competition has clinched a spot in the semifinals. That much was assured when Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo beat Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi 7-5, 6-4 in the evening session’s first match. Anything other than a straight-set win for Dodig and Melo would have sent Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares through to the semis. Murray and Soares improved to 2-0 earlier in the day with a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Bob and Mike Bryan. Now, though, Murray and Soares must wait until Thursday before they have another shot at clinching their spot in the last four.

The only glimmer of hope for Huey and Mirnyi came when they broke to get back on serve at 5-5 in the opening set. In the very next game, however, Dodig and Melo broke for 6-5 and had no trouble serving things out on their second chance.

One break was enough for the Croatian-Brazilian duo in the second set because it lost only five points in its last five service games.