Djokovic Enters Paris Masters Final after Defeating Federer in Epic Semi-Final

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic met for the 47th time on 3^rd November, 2018 with a place in the Paris Masters final at stake. In the match Novak Djokovic ruined Roger Federer’s ambitions of a 100th career title as he knocked down his great opponent by 7-6 (6), 5-7, 7-6 (3) in a remarkable Paris Masters semi-final that stretched his outstanding unbeaten run to 22 matches.

Whereas the winner, Djokovic, who had previously complained of competing with symptoms of flu in the starting few rounds of the match, looked strong and willing to repel a daring challenge from Federer. Even though the latter’s serve was not broken once, it was still not enough for the 37-year-old,Federer, whose sense outlasted him to be in down side in final tie-break in which he served a double fault and made two careless groundstroke errors. If Federer would have won this match, he would have become only the second man after Jimmy Connors to win a century of professional tour titles, lost the first set despite having held set point in the tie-break and had Djokovic in trouble in the final set when the master was gifted a code violation at 4-4 for chucking his racket away in disgust after the Swiss had saved two break points. Ultimately, though, Federer, who saved all 12 break points on his serve, faced the end of his elasticity as Djokovic extended his career lead over the Swiss to 25-22 after their longest three-set dual. It gave the Serb the opportunity to mark his return to the world No 1 ranking on Monday by winning a record-extending fifth Paris title in Sunday’s final against the Russian Karen Khachanov, who crushed Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-1. The hard guy Djokovic simply refused to be beaten as he claimed a fourth consecutive victory over Federer in a tie-break decider after three compelling long hours. "For the most part I can be happy, my level was good, but losing is never fun," said Federer after the match. He further added that "It's intense, it's good tennis, we care about winning, and we don't like losing. I can tell you that right now. Novak is obviously on a roll. You can feel it." In the finals Djokovic will face Thiem, the world No 8 who on Friday had booked his place in this month’s ATP Finals in London, was out of sorts and seemed rushed by the depth and power of Khachanov’s groundstrokes. Remarkably, the Austrian’s powerful serve was broken five times in a row by Khachanov at the end of the first set and throughout a surprisingly one-sided second.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: //www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/46078216