Novak Djokovic was guaranteed to finish atop Group Guga Kuerten when he stepped onto Centre Court at The O2 on Friday. But Djokovic was locked in nonetheless, defeating Marin Cilic 7-6(7), 6-2 to move to 3-0 at the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals.
It is the fifth time that Djokovic has completed round-robin play at the season finale undefeated. And on three of the four previous occasions, the Serbian went on to win the title (2012-14).
While Djokovic moved to 6-0 in sets at the event this year, his victory against Cilic was by no means easy. The Croatian swung freely from the beginning of the match, standing on the baseline and trying his best to control points by taking the first big strike of the rally. But Djokovic did well to blunt Cilic’s power, and he figuratively shrunk the court to make the fifth seed go for more until he missed.
And while one might look at Djokovic’s failure to convert his first four break point opportunities, the story of the match was his serving. The 31-year-old did not lose a first-serve point in the first set, and he has only lost 15 first-serve points through three matches, each clash coming against a player inside the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings.
Djokovic finally earned his breakthrough at 2-2 in the second set, as he slowly began to get more of a read on Cilic’s serve. And then he broke for a second time to complete his impressive run through Group Guga Kuerten after one hour and 35 minutes.
In the semi-finals, Djokovic will face Kevin Anderson in a rematch of this year’s Wimbledon final, won by the Serbian in straight sets. Anderson won the pair’s first FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting a decade ago in Miami, but the World No. 1 has triumphed in all seven of their matches since, winning 17 of 19 sets in those clashes. Anderson went 2-1 in Group Lleyton Hewitt, losing only to Roger Federer on Thursday.
Did You Know?
Djokovic will finish atop the year-end ATP Rankings for the fifth time (2011-12, 2014-15, 2018), becoming the fourth player to do so at least five times. The other three players are Pete Sampras (6), Jimmy Connors (5) and Roger Federer (5).
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