Novak Djokovic extended his stunning record at Shanghai Rolex Masters, a Masters 1000 event where he has never lost a match before the semifinal stages. As the ATP calendar closes in on the regular season circle, Novak Djokovic also seeks to finish up strongly as the world No. 1 seat is within sight.
Earlier today, Djokovic overcame a balanced first set of the match to knock out Kevin Anderson from South Africa. The second seed in Shanghai, Djokovic will now test his strength in a highly-anticipated match against Alexander Zverev, The 21-year-old German Tennis star secured his spot in the semis after dispatching the No.
Brit Kyle Edmund in straight sets.
Novak Djokovic is back to sheer domination
A 14-time Grand Slam titlist, Novak Djokovic has really turned his season the other way around. With no significant results in the first couple of months of the 2018 season, he started to put pieces back together during the clay court season. Finally, he completed his comeback by clinching the 2018 Wimbledon Championships. According to the ATP official website, from that point on, he stepped outside the lines only once when he lost a highly-disputed match against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round of the Rogers Cup in Toronto, Canada.
As the current season is heading to that inevitable end, the Serb has lifted his game into the stratosphere, a level very few players in the men's professional circuit can match.
With the win over Kevin Anderson, Djokovic has now extended his invincibility streak to 16. In fact, the Serb hasn't lost a set in the ATP circuit since the 2018 US Open's second round. That means he now has eight consecutive perfectly played matches.
Djokovic started the hunt for the year's end No. 1
According to ESPN, Novak Djokovic declared himself to be quite happy with how his season (and career by extension) turned around in the last few months.
And he has all the reason in the world to be so. Six months ago, he was in a slump trying to dig up some inspiration and motivation in order to pick himself out of the meanders of the top 20.
Currently ranked third in the world, he has a chance to be back in the second place by the end of the week. Should he get past Alexander Zverev, he will be guaranteed of having the second place in his pocket regardless of how Roger Federer plays out this tournament.
With nothing to defend from last year, and with a favorable wind blowing into the sails, Novak Djokovic is in pole position to finish up the season on top of the ATP ranking for the fifth time (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 were the previous years).