Does the young Zverev have what it takes to record his second career win against an unstoppable Djokovic? In a rematch of their second-round round robin match, Alexander “Sasha” Zverev will have a chance at redemption against Novak Djokovic after he was brushed aside 6-4, 6-1 on Wednesday in an hour and fifteen minutes.
To reach the finals, both players recorded straight-set wins in their semi-final appearances. Zverev was first up on semi-final Saturday against legend Roger Federer in what was poised to be an intense encounter.
There are few secrets between these players as Federer used to invite Zverev as his occasional hitting partner on tour before the future star made a name for himself. However, Zverev has made a subtle, but crucial improvement to his game and is attacking the net more frequently. He is clearly still not adept at volleying, and the master-tactician in Federer recognized this and attempted to expose Zverev by hitting drop shots to lure him into the net against his will, and forcing difficult volleys. Despite this, the match provided little brouhaha in its initial states as both Federer and Zverev held serve until Federer was serving at 5-6 and was broken at love to hand Zverev the set.
In the second set, Federer did what most champions do, and broke Zverev’s serve to take the second set lead at 2-1. However, Federer backed the break of serve by doing what most champions not do and gave the break straight back with poor play for 2-2. The match continued on serve into a tiebreak.
For those not familiar with the match, it was at this point where the drama appeared. With the tie-break on serve at 4-3 in favor of Federer, a ball kid accidentally let a ball slip from his hand onto the court well behind Federer, but in the line of sight of Zverev. It was at this point in the rally Zverev took the rare step of stopping the point due to the on-court distraction – much to the chagrin of the partisan Federer crowd. Usually in these situations, it is the chair umpire whom stops the rally; however, in this situation chair umpire, Carlos Bernardes was not focused on the rear corner of the court where the ball kid was stationed. It is for this reason Zverev stopped the point on his own accord and earned himself relentless boos from the crowd. During the replay of the 4-3 point, Zverev won the point. A routine volley error into the net by Federer on the next points gave Zverev two match points at 6-4. Zverev closed out the match two points later with a swinging-backhand volley winner and booked his spot in the finals of the ATP World Tour Finals.
In a straight-forward face off in the second semi-final, NovakDjokovic continued to remind the world he has fully recovered from his injury-backsof 2017. Never being troubled on his own serve, and breaking Kevin Anderson fivetimes, Novak Djokovic exhibited a fine performance in overwhelming KevinAnderson 6-2, 6-2.
The championship match will be at 10:00 AM PST where Alexander Zverev will bid to win the biggest title of his career while Novak Djokovic is chasing history by looking to tie Roger Federer for six titles at the year-end championships.
Forty Love of Tennis 