By Chris Oddo | Friday, January 8, 2016
Novak Djokovic captured his 18th consecutive hard court victory vs Tomas Berdych to set up a Doha final with Rafael Nadal.
Photo Source: Tennis TV
Novak Djokovic secured his place in a final for the 16th consecutive time, rolling past his longtime whipping boy Tomas Berdych for the 9th consecutive time and 18th on a hard court with a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory.
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Djokovic is now just two finals shy of the ATP Open Era record for consecutive finals. Ivan Lendl once reached 18 title matches in succession.
“It was a very close match,” said Djokovic after the match. “All in all I’m just happy to get through.”
Djokovic got out of the gate slowly and was broken in the first game, but he quickly responded and would break critically in the eighth game before serving the opening set out at love, winning 21 of the final 27 points in the set.
Berdych was crisp in the second set but he was unable to manage a break and instead drifted into a second-set tiebreaker with the very dangerous Serb. Djokovic had won his last six tiebreakers against Berdych and he made quick work of the Czech to make it seven, taking advantage of Berdych’s reluctance to go big off the ground and remaining consistent until his opportunities came.
Djokovic raced out to a 4-0 lead in the breaker, stretched it to 5-1 at the changeover and hit an amazing backhand pass winner to bring up four match points two points later.
Berdych would save one match point but the world No. 1 would clinch his spot alongside Rafael Nadal in the final on the second, when Berdych netted a backhand.
Djokovic and Nadal have met 46 times, with each player owning 23 victories.
“I guess its an important match tomorrow,” Djokovic joked. “Let’s see what happens. It’s been a long rivalry, but it’s an another exciting challenge for both of us. Hopefully we’ll pull up some exciting tennis for the fans tomorrow night.”