Djokovic saves set points to deny brave Michelsen in Shanghai

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/novak-djokovic/d643/overview'Novak Djokovic/a began his quest for a 100th title Saturday after overcoming a sluggish start to defeat a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alex-michelsen/m0qi/overview'Alex Michelsen/a 7-6(3), 7-6(9) in a pulsating second-round clash at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/shanghai/5014/overview'Rolex Shanghai Masters/a./p

pReturning to China's business and finance hub for the first time in five years, and playing just his second match since the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a, 37-year-old Djokovic was thoroughly tested by the #NextGenATP American, who held two set points in the deciding tie-break./p

p"It was the first match against Alex and I also hadn't played in a while, so it took me a little time to get the rust off,rdquo; said Djokovic, who boasts a record 35 match wins in Shanghai. ldquo;He started off terrifically; big serves and an aggressive style of tennis... he's not afraid to step it up and take it to his opponent. /p

p"It was a very close encounter and I thought a high level of tennis in both sets. I'm just glad to keep calm when it mattered in the second-set tie-break.rdquo;/p

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pStill wearing a protective sleeve over his right knee, on which he had meniscus surgery, Djokovic will next play the winner of 28supth/sup-seeded a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/flavio-cobolli/c0e9/overview'Flavio Cobolli/a or longtime rival a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/stan-wawrinka/w367/overview'Stan Wawrinka/a./p

pDjokovic won just four points in the first three games against the #NextGenATP American, who raced to a 4-1 lead in the pairrsquo;s first Lexus ATP Head2Head clash./p

pPutting 16 of his first 18 first serves into play and frequently moving to net, a confident Michelsen played with aggressive intent and appeared comfortable in baseline exchanges with the four-time Shanghai champion. But when the 20-year-old struggled to put his first serve into play in the seventh game, Djokovic broke back and ultimately took the set when he won his 11supth/sup tie-break from 15 played this season./p

pLike Michelsen in the opener, Djokovic led 4-1 in the second only to allow his opponent back onto even terms at 4-all. But the Serbian held his nerve in the decisive tie-break after saving set points at 7/8 and 8/9 to close out the win after one hour and 55 minutes./p

p"I was 4-1 up, 15/40 and he hit the let-cord that went over. It could easily have been 6-1 for me in the second,rdquo; Djokovic said. ldquo;But at this level, things can change very quickly./p

p"I'm glad to really be challenged by a young player and I'm looking forward to the next one."/p

pIn a high-quality match, Djokovic hit 34 winners to 23 unforced errors, with Michelsen notching 30 winners to 19 unforced errors according to Infosys ATP Stats./p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"

p lang="en" dir="ltr"a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/novak-djokovic/d643/overview'Novak Djokovic/a, you have got to be kidding ????a href="https://twitter.com/DjokerNole?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@DjokerNole/a | a href="https://twitter.com/SH_RolexMasters?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@SH_RolexMasters/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RolexShanghaiMasters?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#RolexShanghaiMasters/a a href="https://t.co/u2mJE0RrUY"pic.twitter.com/u2mJE0RrUY/a/p

mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1842542673598759173?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"October 5, 2024/a/blockquote

script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script

pDjokovic is the only player in history (since 1990) to win all nine ATP Masters 1000 titles, a feat he has achieved twice en route to his record haul of 40 titles at this level. He is yet to reach a final in the series this year./p

pDjokovic last year won Masters 1000 titles in Cincinnati and Paris, and collected a record eighth a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a crown. But in 2024 he has won just one title, the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/paris/96/2024/results'Paris Olympics/a, as his semmingly inevitable march towards 100 career titles has been delayed./p

pImproving to 33-8 on the season, Djokovic was playing just his second match since a third-round loss to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexei-popyrin/p09z/overview'Alexei Popyrin/a at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a. The victory saw Djokovic overtake the injured a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alex-de-minaur/dh58/overview'Alex de Minaur/a in eighth place in the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin and move inside the cut for the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a (10-17 November)./p

pMichelsen, who is third in the PIF ATP Live Race to Jeddah, is at a career-high ranking of 43 after last week reaching the Tokyo quarter-finals, where he upset a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/stefanos-tsitsipas/te51/overview'Stefanos Tsitsipas/a in the first round after qualifying./p

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