Well begun, strongly diminished: Alexander Zverev lost the first semi-final of the Masters 1000cc tournament in Shanghai against Novak Djokovic 2:6, 1:6.
Zverev went into the match against Djokovic with the certainty of a lead in the direct comparison: Last year in Rome he had defeated the then stumbling Serb in the final and won his first Masters title. While the fourth-placed player of the world rankings has added two more titles in this respect, he has to wait for victory number two against the Djoker: After a promising start, the match was finally a clear thing for Djokovic.
It was Zverev who was the first player to sniff break chances at 1-1 and 0-30, but from then on Djokovic found his usual groove, while Zverev became impatient too fast.
In the first set, the 14-time Major-Champ was lucky: Djokovic had two chances to break at 3:2, thanks to a Zverev double error, which was not one: The second serve of the German had scratched the T-line, as the TV-Hawk-Eye showed; Zverev, however, possibly irritated by Djokovic’s lack of setback, did not challeng and then put a forehand close to the break. A break with consequences: While Zverev was making more and more mistakes and suddenly seemed impatient, Djokovic now played almost flawlessly, with a well-known controlled offensive, and took set one with break number two.
Zverev was now annoyed, after the Djokovic break to 3:1 then had to believe the racket.
The outburst of rage released new energy for the 21-year-old at short notice, but a 15:30 serve from Djokovic was not good enough. On the other hand, Djokovic was not even allowed to pass, the break to 5:1 was the logical consequence. Even though Zverev was able to fend off three match points on serve Djokovic, the match ended after only one hour playing time with match point number four.
Djokovic will pass Roger Federer in the world rankings next Monday, thanks to his place in the final, and will be the new number two, even if Federer wins in Shanghai: The Swiss can only defend his 1,000 points from last year’s victory, Djokovic has already gained enough points due to his time-out in 2017.
In the coming weeks, Djokovic will also have a good chance of passing Rafael Nadal and taking the top of the world rankings again: Should he win the final, he would only be 215 points behind the Spaniard.
The Shanghai Draw in detail