Novak Djokovic progresses to semi-finals but now has to…

Novak Djokovic had a nervous wait to find out if he would progress at the ATP
Finals after defeating Hubert Hurkacz 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-1; Jannik Sinner’s
victory later on Thursday ensured the world No 1 reached the semi-finals

Novak Djokovic defeated Hubert Hurkacz in his final round-robin match at the
ATP Finals but faced a nervous wait before his qualification for the
semi-finals was confirmed.

The defending champion bounced back from Tuesday’s loss to Jannik Sinner to
see off Hurkacz, a replacement for the injured Stefanos Tsitsipas, 7-6 (1) 4-6
6-1.

Djokovic then needed to hope Sinner beat Holger Rune so he could advance to
the last-four of the season-ending tournament for the year’s top eight players,
with the Italian triumphing 6-2 5-7 6-4 to ensure he qualified from the Green
Group.

“My kids are arriving tonight, so I don’t think I’ll watch,” Djokovic said
after his match. “I did my job and I’m going to spend tonight with the family.
Then tomorrow I can worry about whether I qualified or not.”

Djokovic appeared frustrated early on when he had no answer to Hurkacz’s big
serve, but then his Polish opponent made a few errors and Djokovic won 10
straight points to jump out to a big lead in the tiebreaker.

Djokovic double-faulted to hand Hurkacz a break and a 3-2 lead in the second.
Then Hurkacz saved two break points with aces a couple of games later and
continued to hold to close out the set.

Hurkacz served routinely at 140mph (225kph) and cranked out 24 aces to
Djokovic’s six. But Djokovic broke to take control midway through the third and
improved to 7-0 in his career against Hurkacz.