SHANGHAI/WASHINGTON, October 11, 2024 (by Michael Dickens)
On Friday evening, Novak Djokovic became the third-oldest player in tennis history to reach an ATP Masters 1000 semifinal. However, the 37-year-old Serbian great was pushed to the limit during his Rolex Shanghai Masters quarterfinal against #NextGenATP rising star Jakub Mensik before a packed house that filled Stadium Court at Qi Zhong Tennis Center.
The 19-year-old Czech pulled out a first-set tie-break 7-4 that got the attention of the four-time Shanghai champion. However, by the end of their two-hour, 19-minute tussle, Djokovic prevailed 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-4, finishing with two of his seven service aces in the final game, to advance to his ninth Shanghai semifinal in 10 appearances and 78th ATP Masters 1000 semifinal overall. The loss ended the wonderful run by Mensik, the youngest quarterfinalist in tournament history, who played five straight three-set matches.
Increasingly dominant @DjokerNole #RolexShanghaiMasters pic.twitter.com/phkf1Y6QcS
— Rolex Shanghai Masters (@SH_RolexMasters) October 11, 2024
“We went toe-to-toe until the last moment,” said Djokovic afterward, who won 83 percent of his first serves, hit 17 winners and outpointed Mensik 103-88. He broke his opponent’s serve four times in nine opportunities.
“I was fortunate to find great serves in the last game, a couple of aces, that helps,” Djokovic added during his on-court interview. “I didn’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.
“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.”
Extending his record @DjokerNole defeats Mensik 6-7 6-1 6-4 to reach his record-extending 78th Masters 1000 semi-final#RolexShanghaiMasters pic.twitter.com/Wq82EKfF6n
— Rolex Shanghai Masters (@SH_RolexMasters) October 11, 2024
Djokovic gave high praise for Mensik, who finished the quarterfinal battle with 17 aces and struck 21 winners.
“I haven’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,” Djokovic said. “He is only 19, the future is very bright for him. He knows that I am always there for him, whatever he needs.
“Jakub is somebody that I have been following for the last three or four years, ever since he played the finals of junior Australian Open. We like playing each other, we raise the level when we face each other. We’ve played a lot of practice sets and it’s always fun.”
“A part of me left with them” @DjokerNole reflects on the recent retirements of Nadal, Federer & Murray#RolexShanghaiMasters pic.twitter.com/HniWoZXqu0
— Rolex Shanghai Masters (@SH_RolexMasters) October 11, 2024
Fritz ends Goffin’s surprising run
Earlier, World No. 7 and seventh seed Taylor Fritz of the United States reached his third hard-court Masters 1000 semifinal after defeating No. 66 David Goffin of Belgium, 6-3, 6-3, in an hour and 22 minutes on Stadium Court.
With 10 aces and 23 overall winners, Fritz outpointed Goffin 67-53 en route to his 49th win of the season. He is through to the last four of an ATP Masters 1000 for the fifth time in his career.
“I feel like sometimes it takes a couple of matches to find my routines, to find what feels good and what is working for me,” Fritz said during his on-court interview. “I feel like once I get past the first two rounds, I feel very locked in. I’ve come this far already, so I might as well really dial it in and I’m just enjoying being here.”
The moment Fritz reached his first semi-final at the #RolexShanghaiMasters pic.twitter.com/4i0HKF50RO
— Rolex Shanghai Masters (@SH_RolexMasters) October 11, 2024
Fritz, 26, who has not dropped a set during the tournament, has scored wins over French qualifier Terence Atmane, qualifier Yosuke Watanuki, No. 12 seed Holger Rune of Denmark and Goffin. His victory over the 33-year-old Belgian was his second in three career meetings.
During his post-match news conference, Fritz was asked what he’s learned about himself this year, especially after reaching his first US Open final. “I think the biggest thing that I can take away from a lot of the good results, and confidence that I can gain from a lot of these things is just I am a very, like, improved player just at my average level. I don’t need to play incredible to have amazing results,” he said.
We got the gist ❤️@Taylor_Fritz97 #RolexShanghaiMasters pic.twitter.com/1UaIaj5f7U
— Rolex Shanghai Masters (@SH_RolexMasters) October 11, 2024
“That’s something that I think I used to stress a lot about, being very hypercritical of my game certain weeks. If something wasn’t working for me, if I wasn’t feeling like I was playing amazing, then I would almost like write the week off and be like, Oh, well, maybe I can win a couple matches, but this isn’t really going to be the week for me, I’m not playing well enough.
“If a lot of my results this year, US Open included, taught me anything, it’s that I don’t need to be playing perfect to have deep runs in tournaments and to have big results,” Fritz added. “You know, just my average level has improved a lot, and it’s gotten me to a level where, if I compete really hard and focus really hard and just do that, you know, a lot of times it will be enough to, you know, get me deep in the tournaments.”
Around the Shanghai Rolex Masters
Unseeded Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Nikola Mektic of Croatia advanced to the doubles title match of Rolex Shanghai Masters Friday. The pair survived their third match tie-break of the week with their semifinal victory over unseeded Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 10-6, on Stadium Court.
The win lifted Koolhof and Mektic into their first final in Shanghai and fifth final of the 2024 season. In Sunday’s final, the Dutch/Croatian duo will face either Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands and Adam Pavlasek of the Czech Republic or Argentines Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni, who play their semifinal Saturday.
Friday’s Rolex Shanghai Masters results
Saturday’s Rolex Shanghai Masters order of play
FINAL FOUR @SH_RolexMasters | #RolexShanghaiMasters pic.twitter.com/Odk7wFjnMM
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 11, 2024
By the numbers
Taylor Fritz is just the second player from the United States to reach the semifinal round at the Rolex Shanghai Masters. The first was Sebastian Korda in 2023.
“Quotable …”
“Well, I try to play this level, and let’s see what’s going to happen. But, of course, I will enjoy the match. I will be playing right now against the No. 1 in the world, he’s playing unbelievable tennis, especially on hard court. It’s the best tennis what I saw today, for sure, with Medvedev, he was playing unbelievable. But I’m really looking forward to the challenge, so I will enjoy it.”
— No. 30 seed Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic, during his post-match press conference Thursday after defeating World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz, looking ahead to his semifinal against World No. 1 Jannik Sinner.
