Breaking: Novak Djokovic Dismantles Cobolli to Advance at Shanghai Masters
Novak Djokovic proved too strong for Flavio Cobolli, completely demolishing the 22-year-old at the 2024 Shanghai Masters.
The Serbian player is the most successful player in the Shanghai Masters history. He won the most titles (4), played the joint most finals (4), sharing the record with Andy Murray, as well as the record for the most consecutive titles (2).
The Serbian also played the most matches at the event (41), won the most matches at the event (36), won the most consecutive matches (13) and played the most editions (13). Naturally, he has also the best winning percentage (87.8%).
This year, he might also become the oldest champion in the event’s history, as that record is currently held by Roger Federer, who won the 2017 edition of the event at the age of 36 years, 2 months, and 7 days.
Djokovic will be more than a year older at the time of this year’s final of the penultimate ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the season, but first, he needs to get there. So far, that doesn’t seem like a problematic task, as he made another huge step in his third-round match.
In the first round, Djokovic had to battle in two tie-breaks against Alex Michelsen, and in his second match, he took on another talented youngster, Flavio Cobolli, who was the 28th seed at the event.
The Italian had a much shorter time to recover for the match than his opponent, as he had to play against Stan Wawrinka on Monday, while the Serbian’s second-round match was played on Saturday.
That maybe showed early on in this match, as Djokovic came out firing, trying to overwhelm his opponent with aggressive approach from the start. It immediately yielded results, as the 37-year-old broke his opponent’s first service game, establishing a 3-0 lead.
As the match progressed, Cobolli couldn’t find any answers to the 24-time Grand Slam champion’s game. Djokovic added another break of serve in the opening set, which he easily won 6-1.
The Italian player likely wanted to forget that and start better in the second set, and he did. Cobolli managed to hold both of his first two service games, leading 2-1 in the second set.
However, little did he know that it would be the last game he won, as Djokovic ended the match by winning five consecutive games to win 6-1, 6-2, and progress into the fourth round at the 2024 Shanghai Masters.
Speaking to the Tennis Channel after the match, Djokovic admitted that he had a clear plan against his opponent and that he also benefitted from the Italian’s exhaustion.
“Pretty sharp from the beginning. I had a clear plan of what I needed to do – staying aggressive and trying to use every short ball to take the initiative in the point, and I’ve done that.”
“Cobolli was evidently exhausted after the last night’s match. He’s been waiting, we’ve been all waiting 2-3 days to play our matches, and I think it has taken a toll physically on him.”
Up next, Djokovic will be playing against Roman Safiullin, and because of the many postponed matches, the new two-week ATP Masters 1000 event essentially became the old one-week format, with the remainder of the matches left to be played in five days. However, the four-time champion doesn’t mind that.
“Bringing back the old format, I guess. I don’t mind it. I haven’t played too many matches. I think the positive in that is that I’m fresh, so I’m happy to play every day, as long as it takes.”
