Djokovic reaches final of personal exhibition tournament

“I hope we gave the group a very good present,” Djokovic, who organized the occasion even though intercontinental tennis continues to be suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reported in a courtside job interview.

“A several factors here and there swung the tie my way. A lot of many thanks to the fans who turned up and stayed late. The very last few months have been tricky (because of the pandemic) and I hope you will appear in numbers tomorrow much too.”

The two-day function on crimson clay in Zadar is the 2nd leg of Djokovic’s Adria Tour, with Austrian Dominic Thiem successful the to start with leg in Belgrade last weekend.

The 3rd leg owing in Montenegro on June 27 and 28 has been scrapped in excess of coronavirus issues while the final leg is to be staged in Bosnia’s metropolis Banja Luka on July 3 and 4.

The tournaments require eight players each, divided into two swimming pools of 4 on a round-robin basis. Sets have been slashed to very best-of-7 game titles.

In Sunday’s afternoon session, Djokovic faces Croatian Dino Serdarusic who replaced Grigor Dimitrov just after the Bulgarian pulled out of the tournament with sickness pursuing his opening 4-1 4-1 reduction to Coric.

But the end result of the contest will be meaningless as Djokovic can not be overhauled by any of his Group A rivals.

In Team B, Russian Andrey Rublev is in pole placement to progress into Sunday’s 1800 GMT final just after wins above 2014 U.S. Open winner Marin Cilic and Serb Danilo Petrovic.

In Sunday’s last round-robin match, Rublev faces Germany’s globe number seven Alexander Zverev who stayed in competition for a berth in the closing with a 4-3 -4 4-3 get in excess of Cilic.