Novak Djokovic defeated Hubert Hurkacz in his ultimate round-robin match on the ATP Finals however should wait to see if he qualifies for the final 4.
The defending champion bounced again from Tuesday’s loss to Jannik Sinner to see off Hurkacz, a substitute for the injured Stefanos Tsitsipas, 7-6 (1) 4-6 6-1.
Djokovic now must hope Sinner beats Holger Rune later so he can advance to the semi-finals of the season-ending match for the 12 months’s prime eight gamers.
“My kids are arriving tonight, so I don’t think I’ll watch,” Djokovic stated. “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 pissed off early on when he had no reply to Hurkacz’s huge serve, however then his Polish opponent made a couple of errors and Djokovic gained 10 straight factors to leap out to an enormous lead within the tiebreaker.
Djokovic double-faulted at hand Hurkacz a break and a 3-2 lead within the second. Then Hurkacz saved two break factors with aces a few video games later and continued to carry to shut out the set.
Hurkacz served routinely at 140mph (225kph) and cranked out 24 aces to Djokovic’s six. However Djokovic broke to take management halfway by way of the third and improved to 7-0 in his profession towards Hurkacz.
“He’s got one of the biggest serves in world,” Djokovic stated. “It’s very, very tough to return, especially here at an altitude of nearly 300 meters (1,000 feet). I was waiting for chances when he missed his first serve – that was my only chance.”
Sinner and Djokovic have two wins every, Rune has one win and Hurkacz and Tsitsipas have none.
Within the different group, Daniil Medvedev has already superior with two wins. Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev have one win every and Andrey Rublev is winless.