Nitto ATP Finals: Casper Rudd defeats Andrey Rublev and meets Novak Djokovic

The match began with both players engaging in some hard-hitting rallies. No. 3 seed Casper Rudd was clinical on serve and fired the ball consistently to convert all four break-point opportunities he had, 

The 23-year-old Norwegian discovered his rhythm in the fifth game following a few uncharacteristic errors by his Russian opponent. He consecutively won the next seven games and fired 20 winners while making just eight unforced errors to clinch the victory after one hour and nine minutes of play.

Casper Rudd served ten aces, won 77% of the points on the first serve and broke the serve of his Russian opponent four times from four opportunities. In contrast, Andrey Rublev served nine aces, won 67% of the points on the first serve and earned just one break-point.

After the victory, Casper Rudd said, "It is tough sometimes because things are obviously going great, but sometimes they can go almost too well. So you feel like you can do anything with the ball and you can get a little bit ahead of yourself. I was not stressing too much. Everything sort of was going my way today."

The victory improved the win-loss record of Caper Rudd against the 25-year-old Russian to 2-3, with his previous win coming during the round-robin stage of last year's ATP Finals.

Andrey Rublev will next lock horns with former World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the championship clash of the Nitto ATP Finals on November 20.

Novak Djokovic downs Taylor Fritz to equal Rafael Nadal's tally of 130 finals appearances in ATP events

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Great 8️⃣<a href="https://twitter.com/DjokerNole?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DjokerNole</a> eliminates Fritz 7-6(5) 7-6(6) to reach an eighth career year-end final<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NittoATPFinals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NittoATPFinals</a> <a href="https://t.co/0qThwVwCgz">pic.twitter.com/0qThwVwCgz</a></p>&mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) <a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1593983801809637380?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Novak Djokovic of Serbia fended off a tough challenge from Taylor Fritz to secure a 7-6(7-5), 7-6(8-6) win in the semifinal round of the Nitto ATP Finals on November 19.

The 35-year-old Serb now stands just one victory away from equalizing Roger Federer's record of six ATP Finals titles.

A spirited display from Taylor Fritz saw both sets being forced into tie-breaks. However, Novak Djokovic upped his game at critical moments to pull through both tie-breaks to secure a straight-set triumph after one hour and 54 minutes of the intense clash.

In a post-match interview, Novak Djokovic said, "I had to fight to survive. I am very pleased to have overcome this one as I don't think it was one of my best days with my tennis, but I managed to hang in there."

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