Novak Djokovic climbs to world No 2 after reaching final in China
Saturday 13 October 2018 16:15, UK
Novak Djokovic continued his sensational resurgence by demolishing Alexander Zverev in straight sets to reach his fourth final at the Shanghai Masters.
The dominant Serb eased past Zverev 6-2 6-1 for his 44th victory of a remarkable year which has seen the 31-year-old win Wimbledon, the Cincinnati Masters and US Open in recent months, after having elbow surgery in February.
Djokovic remains on court to grab injured Rafael Nadal's year-end No 1 ranking and he will now face highly-rated Croatian youngster Borna Coric after he upset top seed and defending champion Roger Federer.
Zverev has been very impressive this week having not dropped a set and neither has Novak, but Djokovic is playing beautifully. After the fifth game there was only going to be one winner. It was a lopsided match. Zverev couldn't get through the defence of Djokovic whatsoever today.
"I thought I was very solid and always made him play an extra shot from the back of the court and I tried to be as convenient, accurate, and efficient on my service games as possible," Djokovic told Sky Sports, after recording his 17th ATP match-win in a row.
"I don't have a 220 kph first serve like he does so I have to try to use precision more and try to open up the rally with easier first shots. It was part of the tactics, but obviously Alexander can play much better than he played tonight. He wasn't moving that great and he was making a lot of unforced errors."
The first set went with serve, and some big serves at that, until Djokovic grabbed the break to go 4-2 up.
Zverev threatened to unravel and conceded the set in barely 30 minutes after landing a routine smash into the net, to gasps from the crowd.
The young German, who is yet to win a Grand Slam, angrily threw his racket at the start of the second set as Djokovic ramped up the pressure.
An increasingly-exasperated Zverev issued more punishment to his racket at 3-1 down, earning a code violation and tossing the battered piece into the crowd before slumping to defeat in exactly one hour.
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