Novak Djokovic retained his perfect head-to-head against Taylor Fritz in the Shanghai Masters semifinal despite being in pain during the second set.
Djokovic has always received superb crowd support when he competes in China. That contrasts with several other tournaments worldwide, leading to the Serbian clashing with fans on many occasions throughout his career.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion had not played in China for five years until the 2024 Shanghai Masters. Djokovic elected to skip the tournament in 2023 and the event was not held from 2020 until 2022 because of COVID-19 restrictions.
This year’s Shanghai Masters will always be memorable for Djokovic, regardless of whether he wins the tournament. Rafael Nadal, Djokovic’s greatest rival, announced his retirement from tennis during the event.
The Davis Cup Finals in November will be Nadal’s final professional appearance before retiring. Djokovic promised to travel to Malaga for the event to witness the Spaniard’s final moments on home soil.
Despite admitting a big part of him has already left the sport after Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray’s retirements, Djokovic needed to refocus for his semifinal in Shanghai against Fritz.
The four-time champion at the tournament was probably at ease facing an opponent he had a 9-0 record against. It felt like Fritz needed to produce something special to unsettle the former world No. 1 in the semifinal.
Djokovic raced into a 0-40 lead in Fritz’s opening service game, but the American recovered and avoided making the worst possible start to the contest. He would have hoped that was a sign of good things to come.
However, Djokovic took another 0-40 lead on Fritz’s serve at 2-2. Despite a lovely drop volley to save the first chance, the 37-year-old took his fifth opportunity of the set to break and lead 3-2.
The 10-time Australian Open champion had another opportunity to break that he could not take, but it only delayed the inevitable. Djokovic took the opening set 6-4, having not faced a breakpoint.
The fifth game of the second set was the best of the match. Djokovic hit three stunning backhand passing shot winners, but then he could not put away a routine overhead on breakpoint. Fritz showed great reactions to claw his way back to the point.
Despite Djokovic hitting a stunning backhand return afterward, Fritz hung on to hold after a lengthy game of exceptional quality. Both players were given a standing ovation by the crowd at its conclusion.
Fritz threatened to make Djokovic pay for that missed chance when he went 15-40 up on the Serbian’s serve at 4-3. Unfortunately for the American, hitting a second serve return long on the second breakpoint was costly, and Djokovic held.
There was a worrying moment for Djokovic’s fans after Fritz went 6-5 up. He took a medical timeout to have some work done on his right knee, which has been troubling him throughout the season.
Djokovic did not look overly comfortable afterward but somehow got over the line. After holding serve, the legendary Serbian found himself 5-6 down in the tiebreak on Fritz’s serve.
The US Open runner-up could not take that opportunity before Djokovic won an extraordinary rally at 6-6 to bring up match point. Fritz hit a forehand lob out to seal a 6-4, 7-6 victory for Djokovic, setting up a final against Jannik Sinner.
