Aiming to bounce back from his breathtaking defeat to Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic closes out his ATP World Tour Finals Green group campaign with a showdown against alternate Hubert Hurkacz on Thursday.
While Djokovic went down in three sets to Sinner during a match of epic proportions, Hurkacz has been drafted in to replace Stefanos Tsitsipas, who withdrew from the tournament with a back injury against Holger Rune.
Match preview
Even Djokovic could only stand and applaud some of Sinner's mesmerising shots alongside the raucous Turin crowd on Tuesday, as the 24-time Grand Slam winner - who was crowned year-end number one with his opening success over Rune - suffered his first top-level defeat to the up-and-coming Italian.
Djokovic's three-hour slog with Rune ended with the 36-year-old on the correct end of a three-set scoreline, but the Serbian was left to rue a dismal start to a winner-takes-all tie-breaker against Sinner, who stormed to a 7-5 6-7[5] 7-6[2] victory in Tuesday's blockbuster battle.
Djokovic admitted that he lacked 'courage' in the decisive moments, as a selection of sweetly-struck passing shots from Sinner flew past him at the net, and the world number one often had no answer to the 22-year-old's venomous cross-court forehands and backhands, despite posting more aces and winners on the day.
Nevertheless, Djokovic's opening success over Rune means that the reigning champion is still sitting pretty in second place in the section and is on course for another semi-final appearance, which will be guaranteed if he overcomes Hurkacz and Sinner gets the better of Rune.
However, should the 36-year-old - who came into his contest with Sinner on a 19-match winning streak - be condemned to back-to-back defeats on Turin turf, only a fifth round-robin exit could appear on his CV; Djokovic has only ever failed to make the knockouts in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2019.
The six-time champion was originally due to pit his wits against Greek sixth seed Tsitsipas in his final Green group battle, but only three games into his showdown with Danish starlet Rune, the 25-year-old succumbed to a back injury and ceded his place in the section to number one alternate Hurkacz.
Fresh from a one-set exhibition win over secondary reserve Taylor Fritz - sinking the American 6-3 - Hurkacz will compete at the year-end championships for just the second time when he steps out onto the court on Thursday, having directly qualified for the 2021 event as the seventh seed.
Hurkacz's ATP Finals baptism was a forgettable one, though, as he bowed out at the first hurdle with three successive defeats to Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev and Sinner, and the Pole failed to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final in the 2023 season, getting as far as the last 16 in Australia and Wimbledon.
However, after getting as far as the semi-finals at the Cincinnati Masters, Hurkacz clinched just his second ATP 1000 crown in Shanghai - sinking Andrey Rublev in a nail-biting third-set tie-breaker - before exiting the Paris Masters at the quarter-final stage to beaten finalist Grigor Dimitrov.
Sandwiched in between those two contests was Hurkacz's ninth ATP Tour singles final at last month's Swiss Indoors, where he went down in straight sets to Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime, but the Pole enters Thursday's contest with a tour-high 15.2 aces per match over the past 52 weeks, while an average of 79.6% first-serve points won per match is second only to Quentin Halys's 79.9%.
Tournament so far
Novak Djokovic:
Round robin: vs. Holger Rune 7-6[4] 6-7[1] 6-3
Round robin: vs. Jannik Sinner 5-7 7-6[5] 6-7[2]
Head To Head
French Open (2019) - First round: Djokovic wins 6-4 6-2 6-2
Wimbledon (2019) - Third round: Djokovic wins 7-5 6-7[5] 6-1 6-4
Paris Masters (2021) - Semi-final: Djokovic wins 3-6 6-0 7-6[5]
Madrid Open (2022) - Quarter-final: Djokovic wins 6-3 6-4
Dubai Tennis Championships (2023) - Quarter-final: Djokovic wins 6-3 7-5
Wimbledon (2023) - Fourth round: Djokovic wins 7-6[6] 7-6[6] 5-7 6-4
The head-to-head column certainly makes for unpleasant reading for the Hurkacz camp, as Djokovic has prevailed in all six of his previous meetings with the Pole on the ATP Tour, including a pair of victories in the ongoing 2023 season.
A straightforward Dubai quarter-final win preceded a four-set Wimbledon success in the fourth round for the 24-time major winner, who has only lost one of his four tie-breakers against the 26-year-old, and even then he responded emphatically to succeed at SW19 four years ago.
Thursday's battle will mark only the second meeting between Djokovic and Hurkacz on indoor hard courts following the 2021 Paris Masters, where the Serbian came from behind to triumph in three sets in the semi-finals, and that remains the only occasion that Hurkacz has won a first set against his upcoming opponent.
We say: Djokovic to win in three sets
Having at times been overwhelmed by the sheer ferocity of Sinner's groundstrokes, Djokovic risks a similar fate against the big-hitting Hurkacz should he fail to heed his own advice when it comes to courage and 'aggressiveness' in key moments, but one suspects that will not be the case.
The Serbian's 100% record against Sinner counted for nought on Tuesday, and Hurkacz - who gave Djokovic a good run for his money at Wimbledon - will boast the fresher legs, but we are still backing the reigning champion to do all he can to book a spot in the semi-finals.
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