In his victory over Alexander Zverev in the semifinals of the Cincinnati Masters 1,000, Novak Djokovic tied Rafa Nadal and Ivan Lendl with 1,068 wins in the Open era.
Djokovic, Nadal and Lendl are in third place and 183 wins away from the second most wins of all time, the Swiss Roger Federer (1,251), while Jimmy Connors tops this table with 1,274.
The Serbian player, winner of 23 ‘grandes’, will play in the final against Carlos Alcaraz re-issuing one from just over a month ago at Wimbledon.
During his career, Djokovic, 36, he won 94 ATP titles and earned more than $171 million in prize money.
For Djokovic, this is the 75th semifinal of his Masters 1,000 career and this year he lost just one game in 19 on a hard surface. Only the Russian Daniil Medvedev beat him, in Dubai.
The Serbian increased his record to 8-4 against Zverev, who defeated him in their last meeting, at the 2021 ATP Finals.
DEMANDING SEMIFINALS
A tiebreaker was needed to settle the first set, won 7-5 by Djokovic after one hour and thirteen minutes. no rest. In the second set, Djokovic got the break in the first game, but Zverev rallied from it in the tenth to level at 5-5.
However, the Serbian did not take long to react and achieved the ‘break’ in the following game which paved the way for him in the final. Djokovic was the star of a funny public anecdote, as he served for the game when the fireworks were set off at a nearby Cincinnati amusement park.
Djokovic asked for more time to remove the judge and, when he sentenced the round pass, he threw a ball out of the stadium, towards the amusement park, to release the tension.
This Sunday is the day of the grand final with Alcaraz, just over a month after the Murcian defeated him in the Wimbledon final.
Alcaraz has a 2-1 advantage over the Serbian forwards. He defeated him in the semifinals of the Masters 1,000 in Madrid 6-7(5), 7-5 and 7-6(5) in 2022, when he was crowned champion.
This year, Djokovic won the Roland Garros semi-final 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1, before succumbing 1-6, 7-6(6), 6-1, 3-6 and 6 – 4 in the Wimbledon final.
Source: La Verdad
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