ATP World Tour Finals: Djoker dazzles

London: World No.1 Novak Djokovic pulled out a near-perfect performance as he downed the resurgent Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-3 in their World Tour Finals last-four clash on Saturday. Djokovic was beaten by Roger Federer in the group stages of the season-ending tournament, disputed on a hard court between the year’s top eight players at London’s O2 Arena.

Spanish fifth seed Nadal won all three of his group matches to reach the semifinals but there was little he could do to stop the defending champion in this sort of form.

If the Serb lifts the trophy for a fifth time, he will become the first player to win the Tour Finals four years in a row.

Djokovic, the Australian, Wimbledon and US Open champion, hit 24 winners to nine from Nadal, who could not fashion a break point throughout the match. “It was a great performance, no doubt about that, from the very beginning. I managed to execute the game plan, I was trying to be aggressive, dictate the play,” Djokovic said.

“He was playing some great tennis during this week but I managed to pull out my best game when it was needed the most,” he added. While Federer and Nadal’s epic clashes down the years have led their rivalry to be regarded as the sport’s must-see match-up, the Spaniard’s duels with Djokovic have grown increasingly ferocious since their first meeting way back in 2006.

Nadal held a 23-22 edge in his head-to-head record with Djokovic going into the match, but the Serb had won seven of the last eight meetings, including the quarterfinal victory that ended the Spaniard’s long reign as French Open champion earlier this year. After a miserable 2015 campaign, Nadal had looked somewhere close to his best over the last week as he moved into the semifinals with three successive wins. Meanwhile, Stan Wawrinka defeated Andy Murray 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 to set up the semis clash with compatriot Roger Federer.