Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic played their last game at last year’s Australian Open, with the Serbian beating an injured Swiss in straight sets in the semi-finals. Two and a half months earlier, two big rivals met in a battle for the winner in the ATP final to decide on the semi-finalist.
Roger knocked down Novak 6-4, 6-3 in a quick 73 minutes to reach the last four and stay on the title track. Making his debut at the ATP premium event in 2002, Roger Federer only missed the opportunity to advance to the semi-finals in 2008, delivering incredible consistency and once again proving his class two years ago. at 38 to become the oldest player with a victory over Novak. Djokovic!
It was the 49th clash between two legends and Roger’s first triumph in four years, ousting the Serbian in the round robin here in London in 2015 and suffering five straight losses after that, including the difficult one at Wimbledon after wasting match points.
Eager to avoid the same scenario, Roger overpowered Novak in almost every department under the roof of the O2 Arena and closed the deal in no time to exclude the Serbian from the tournament ahead of the semi-final for the first. times since 2011!
Thus, Djokovic lost a chance to become number one at the end of the year. 1 for the sixth time, earning Nadal the fifth honor. Novak played well against Matteo Berrettini before losing victory over Dominic Thiem in the second round robin match.
He had to beat Roger to secure a place in the semi-finals and add 200 more points to his tally which would have kept him in contention for this end of year no. 1 place. Instead, Novak put on a shaky performance to stay well below Roger’s level, holding his right elbow every now and then and staring flat on the pitch, with nothing to challenge an inspired and determined rival.
The Swiss won the 23rd triumph over the Serbian after shooting 11 aces and pushing back the only chance for a break. The pressure was on Djokovic’s side on the pitch, and he couldn’t cope, losing nearly half the points in his games and suffering three breaks out of seven opportunities offered to Roger, despite serving at 74%!
Federer hit a service winner in almost half of his initial shots and had a huge advantage in the shortest range of up to four shots.
Roger Federer defeated Novak Djokovic in the 2019 ATP Final for the first time since 2015.
The Swiss remained at the same level as the Serbian in the exchanges which passed the fourth blow and ended the meeting with 23 winners and only five unforced errors for one of the best performances of the season.
Djokovic played against a break chance in the first game of the encounter and erased it after forcing Federer’s mistake. In Game 2, Roger delivered a comfortable grip with an ace and smashed lovers Novak minutes later for a huge boost.
From 30 to 15 in the next game, Federer dismissed three service winners to confirm the advantage and notched four more straight points in Games Six and Eight to stay ahead. Novak held 0-30 in the next game to extend the set before Roger secured the opener with four winners in Game 10 for 6-4 after 35 minutes.
Djokovic fought back two break points in the first game of the second set and created that one chance to return to 2-1, denied by a net winner from Federer, who broke at 15 shortly after that for a massive step towards the finish line.
The Swiss held on at 30 in Game 6 and clinched four winners two games later for 5-3, forcing Novak to serve to stay in the game. Eager to seal the deal in style, Federer broke the love following Djokovic’s volley error and celebrated an impressive victory that took him to the semi-finals.
“The thing is, games against Novak aren’t always on your racket, but I think it’s about when to do what, which isn’t always easy, especially on the fast court. In addition, it is the essential element on the fast court. , where things go fast if you doubt yourself.
This is where the problem lies and what happened to me against Thiem and Berrettini. I wasn’t sure how to serve, how to place my punches and how aggressive to be. I felt good against Djokovic, I had good rhythm in serve and movement and the desire to play aggressively from inside the court.
I always try to believe and improve my game, not thinking about the Wimbledon final and the negative things, but going forward, watching my game on the training ground away from the press and the fans , because some additional elements also count.
A win like this against Novak is almost doubled because of my age. I’m still on the Tour because I believe I can beat the best, and I have to prove that I can do it, although I haven’t beaten Novak for a few years despite a tie-up at Bercy and Wimbledon.
It was a slim margin, and I still lost those games; that’s why such a victory makes me feel good, ”said Roger Federer.
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