The serenity with which Novak Djokovic made his way to the last four at the ATP Finals in Turin was evident in the questions put to him after he dismissed Cameron Norrie to complete a flawless round-robin campaign. Djokovic was asked in press when he next planned to play in South America. His views were sought on the Peng Shuai situation, and on Pete Sampras’s recent suggestion that he is the greatest player of all time. No mention was made of his match against Norrie, while the subject of his semi-final against Alexander Zverev was raised almost as an afterthought.
It is a sign of where we are now with Djokovic. His excellence is such that victory is all but taken for granted, if not by the Serb then certainly by his interlocutors. Tennis has become almost a secondary consideration; far more interesting to seek the insights of this most eloquent and thoughtful of athletes on the current news agenda, or whatever fresh piece of history he happens to be chasing in any given week. That’s what happens when you fall one win short of completing the first calendar-year grand slam in more than half a century, or set a new landmark for the most weeks at No 1, or end the year as top dog for a record-breaking seventh time. People forget you can lose.
Yet when the story of Djokovic’s epic season comes to be written, Zverev will merit more than just postscript status. The German has repeatedly troubled Djokovic this year, beating him in the semi-finals of the Tokyo Olympics and pushing him to a fifth set in a gruelling match at the same stage of the US Open, a duel that doubtless contributed to the mental and emotional exhaustion he spoke of after losing the final to Daniil Medvedev. The latest chapter in their rivalry continued the trend, Zverev going toe-to-toe with the Serb for almost two and a half hours to beat him for the second time in three meetings. It was an immense performance by the 24-year-old, who served brilliantly throughout and repeatedly outlasted Djokovic from the baseline, showing commendable patience and no little lung power.
“Every time we play against each other, it’s very high level,” said Zverev after the 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-3 victory that returned him to the final of an event where he was the champion four years ago. “This year we played each other five times. Every time it went the distance, every time we played for multiple hours and it was very physical. It was a great match. When two players in form play each other, there’s always a great match – I think today was a case of that.”
Djokovic echoed that analysis – “a really good battle, really high-quality tennis,” he said afterwards – although he will surely rue his inability to convert the set point he held at 5-4 in the opener. Having previously failed to make an impression against the Zverev serve, the top seed played a wonderful return game to carve out his only break-point opportunity of the set, capping a 35-stroke rally with an inch-perfect lob before a lovely variation of pace and direction off the backhand– two deep, slow cross-court slices followed by a firecracker down the line – brought up 30-40. For neither the first nor the last time, Zverev stepped up to the line and nailed a deep, untameable first serve into the backhand corner, Djokovic throwing his head back in frustration as his return flew long.
“He’s one of the best servers in the world,” said Djokovic. “He showed tonight why that is a fact. I mean, he got himself out of trouble a few times with his serve.”
Further exasperation was to follow for Djokovic, who saved two break points at 5-5 only to clip the net tape with a drop shot at 3-4 in the tiebreak, allowing Zverev the split second he needed to race in and prod the ball away for a winner. With two serves to come, the German made no mistake, nailing a backhand winner before sealing the set with another unreturnable delivery.
A set to the good, the big question now was whether Zverev had the belief to complete the job. The answer came in the form of an extravagantly audacious backhand drop shot, fizzed across the net at the sweetest of angles as he held to move ahead at the start of the second set. Zverev has frequently spoken of the confidence instilled by his victory at the Olympics, of how he now feels he can win any tournament he enters, and here once again was evidence of a man at the top of his game. Yet Djokovic is Djokovic, and inevitably he was to find a way back into the contest. In the ninth game, having been denied a break point by a second serve ace, the world No 1 fired a crosscourt backhand for a winner and then caught Zverev on his heels with a deep return to secure the first break of the match. The German fought valiantly to stave off the inevitable, battering some huge forehands to save four set points, but this time Djokovic was not to be denied, nailing an ace to level the match.
It was nonetheless a curious path to parity for the Serb, who continued to look impatient and almost disengaged at times, checking out early from baseline exchanges with untimely drop shots and quietly smiling to himself after his not infrequent misses. An error-strewn game at 2-1 in the decider proved decisive.
“I just had the one very bad game in the third set,” said Djokovic. “Three forehand, one backhand unforced error, really from a pretty easy position. I just wasted, really, the match in that game. Even though I thought it was quite even, I had some chances to come back, 2-4 down in the third, just missed again, a forehand long. Yeah, tough match.”
It was a reminder that Djokovic is not infallible, a crumb of hope to the chasing pack at the end of a year when the Serb has conquered virtually all before him. Now Zverev will hope to complete the task against Daniil Medvedev, who he will face in the final for the second time in six days after losing out to the Russian in a final-set tiebreak in the group stage. Medevedev, the defending champion, ran out a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 winner against Casper Ruud in his afternoon semi-final, and will no doubt have enjoyed watching Djokovic and Zverev battle into the night from the comfort of his hotel room.