Djokovic in final; Nadal withdraws
PARIS:NOVAK Djokovic reached his sixth Paris Masters final beating Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (5), 6-4, then learned old rival Rafael Nadal withdrew injured from his semifinal with an abdominal strain on Saturday.
Nadal said he felt the injury flare up in the morning as he practiced before facing Canadian hard-hitter Denis Shapovalov. A scan revealed a small strain. Nadal returned to practice and still felt pain serving. He decided it wasn’t worth risking a bigger injury.
The second-ranked Spaniard said he still hoped to play at the season-ending ATP Finals in London which begin on Nov. 10.
Last year, Nadal pulled out of the Paris Masters before the tournament, also because of an abdominal injury, and missed the ATP Finals in London.
The top-ranked Djokovic remained on course for a fifth Paris title at a tournament Nadal has never won.
Fans at Bercy Arena won’t see a 55th match between Nadal and Djokovic, who is aiming for a 77th career title and has a 3-0 record against the 20-year-old Shapovalov.
Djokovic and Dimitrov won more than 80% of the first serve points in a tight opening set where neither faced a break point.
But when it mattered, Dimitrov cracked in the tiebreaker.
With Dimitrov up 5-4 and controlling the exchanges, a 32-stroke rally ended when he advanced to the net and tried an extravagant forehand volley to the left. He could have played an easier shot with a controlled backhand to the vacant right side of the court.
The ball landed out and Djokovic punched the air, roaring in relief.
Then, on set point, a 35-stroke rally ended when Dimitrov chopped a backhand long.
Djokovic broke him in the fifth game of the second set, the unseeded Bulgarian mis-hitting a forehand and sending it long.
Serving for the match, Djokovic held to love and clinched victory when Dimitrov sent a return wide at full stretch.
Djokovic won his first title here 10 years ago and three straight from 2013-15. He lost his only final, last year, to Karen Khachanov.
Djokovic is bidding to finish the year as No 1 for the sixth time, which would move him one ahead of Roger Federer and Jimmy Connors, and into a tie with all-time leader Pete Sampras. Nadal is looking to seal the year-end top ranking for the fifth time.
BOPANNA LOSES
Rohan Bopanna, along with his partner Denis Shapovalov of Canada, suffered a narrow defeat against Russian duo of Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublov in the quarter-finals to crash out of the Paris Masters. The Indocanadian duo fought hard for over 80 minutes before losing 5-7, 7-6, 8-10 against the Russian pair to bow out of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament. Bopanna and Shapovalov produced 10 aces but they also committed three double faults during the match.