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By Chris Oddo | Saturday October 13, 2018

 
Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic booked his spot in the Rolex Shanghai Masters final with a dominant victory over Alexander Zverev on Saturday in Shanghai.

Photo Source: Lintao Zhang/Getty

It started as a battle and but quickly morphed into a drubbing—Novak Djokovic’s 6-2, 6-1 victory over Alexander Zverev ended as further proof of Djokovic’s dominance in 2018, a season that began with his future in doubt and is ending with the only doubts surrounding if and when his current hot streak will ever end.

On Saturday in Shanghai the resurgent Serb needed just 60 minutes to deliver a crushing blow to World No.5 Zverev as he took 10 of the final eleven games to march to his 17th consecutive victory overall and his eighth consecutive triumph against the Top 10.


Djokovic broke things open in the sixth game when he engineered the first break of the match to go up 4-2 on Zverev, and he broke again two games later, converting his second set point when Zverev netted a smash to take the first set.

Zverev stopped the bleeding with a hold for 1-1 in the second set but it was only a temporary tourniquet on a wound that would never heal.

Djokovic would continue his march to victory unabated from there, winning the final give games with steady, persistent probing that Zverev lacked a proper reply for. The German finished the match with two forehand winners and 12 forehand unforced errors, a clear sign that he was unable to enforce his powerful ground game against Djokovic. Zverev's usually reliable backhand produced just three winners and nine unforced errors.

Tennis Express

Zverev’s frustration boiled over moments after he was broken for 3-1 in set two—he smashed a racquet, stepped on the frame and tossed the folded over remnants high into the crowd, as spectators stood on their toes and reached out to grab it.

If it was meant as a personal wake-up call from Zverev to Zverev, Djokovic was there to assure there would be no uprising from the German.

The Serb never faced a break point and stretched his run of successful holds at Shanghai to 37.

Zverev sailed another forehand wide to get broken for 5-1 and though he battled in the final game, saving three match points to get from 0-40 to deuce, The Serb converted his fourth match point against the German to close affairs in 60 minutes.

Tecnifibre T-Fight

Djokovic’s victory means that he’ll climb to No.2 in the ATP rankings for the first time since June 11, 2017.

He will bid for his 72nd title on Sunday, and his 32nd at the Masters 1000 level, facing either Roger Federer or Borna Coric. The three-time Shanghai champion improves to 31-4 lifetime at the event, and 60-4 since the beginning of 2009 on Chinese Soil.


 

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