Djokovic survives #NextGenATP Mensik in Shanghai, stays on track for 100th title

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/novak-djokovic/d643/overview'Novak Djokovic/a survived a quarter-final scare Friday at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/shanghai/5014/overview'Rolex Shanghai Masters/a to stay alive in his quest for a 100th tour-level title./p

pThe record four-time champion rallied from a set down to neutralise the threat of #NextGenATP star a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jakub-mensik/m0ni/overview'Jakub Mensik/a, earning a 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-4 win to advance to the last four in Shanghai for a ninth time. After a sluggish start, Djokovic clicked into gear in a near-flawless second set during which he won 92 per cent (11/12) of points behind his first serve, according to Infosys ATP Stats./p

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pldquo;We went toe-to-toe until the last moment,rdquo; said Djokovic, who advanced to a record 77th Masters 1000 semi-final. ldquo;I was fortunate to find great serves in the last game, a couple of aces, that helps. I didnrsquo;t serve that well at the end of the first set when I was serving for it. He managed to turn things around by playing a good tie-break./p

pldquo;I stayed collected and started off very well in the second [set], I felt that we both had a physical crisis at the beginning of the set. We pushed each other a lot, a lot of long rallies. [It was] a tough battle, almost two and a half hours.rdquo;/p

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p lang="en" dir="ltr"Sealed with an ace ????br /

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The moment a href="https://twitter.com/DjokerNole?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@DjokerNole/a became the third oldest man to reach ATP Masters 1000 semi-final after Federer ????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/glxPE8KpU9"pic.twitter.com/glxPE8KpU9/a/p

mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1844726402077413723?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"October 11, 2024/a/blockquote

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pBidding to become the third oldest ATP Masters 1000 semi-finalist in series history (since 1990), the 37-year-old took a stranglehold on the third set, surging to victory in two hours and 19 minutes. Djokovic will next face seventh seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/taylor-fritz/fb98/overview'Taylor Fritz/a, who earlier claimed a dominant 6-3, 6-4 win against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/david-goffin/gb88/overview'David Goffin/a./p

pldquo;I havenrsquo;t trained with him for a year and a half, so I could see today why he is one of the best servers we have in the game,rdquo; Djokovic said of Mensik, who hit 17 aces in the match. ldquo;He is only 19, the future is very bright for him. He knows that I am always there for him, whatever he needs./p

pldquo;Jakub is somebody that I have been following for the last three or four years, ever since he played the finals of junior a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/australian-open/580/overview'Australian Open/a. We like playing each other, we raise the level when we face each other. Wersquo;ve played a lot of practice sets and itrsquo;s always fun.rdquo;/p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"p lang="en" dir="ltr"Big a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ShotQuality?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#ShotQuality/a improvements for a href="https://twitter.com/DjokerNole?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@DjokerNole/a as the match went on…br /br /Set 1 Serve 7.8 Fh 7.0br /Set 2 Serve 8.5 Fh 9.6 ????br /Set 3 Serve 8.9 Fh 8.8br /br / a href="https://t.co/4izXbnFoHv"pic.twitter.com/4izXbnFoHv/a/pmdash; Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) a href="https://twitter.com/tennis_insights/status/1844744566055805257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"October 11, 2024/a/blockquote script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script

pAfter improving to 36-8 on the season, Djokovic leapfrogged a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andrey-rublev/re44/overview'Andrey Rublev/a into seventh in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. The Serb is a record seven-time champion at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a and now sits 355 points ahead of ninth-placed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alex-de-minaur/dh58/overview'Alex de Minaur/a./p

pMensik, who was competing in his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final, defeated World No. 6 Rublev and No. 9 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/grigor-dimitrov/d875/overview'Grigor Dimitrov/a en route to the last eight. The 19-year-old remains fourth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah, in strong contention to make his maiden appearance at the Next Gen Finals./p

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