Novak Djokovic faces his close friend Janko Tipsarevic as both players fight for a place in the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Finals.
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Djokovic has looked considerably below par all week and he'll need to raise his game big time to stay in with a chance of making the semi-finals. After a sketchy opening win over Tomas Berdych, Djokovic's baseline game disintegrated spectacularly against David Ferrer on Wednesday night and he was handed the kind of annihilation he's been dishing out all year long.
Djokovic insists that his shoulder is not bothering him and he appeared lost for words in the press conference afterwards. "At this level you know that you have to deliver your best tennis," he said. "I wasn't on my best in the first match but I managed to kind of get into the rhythm in the second set. This match, I have no words to explain. Nothing was going really. Nothing was going well."
Tipsarevic was left ruing missed opportunities as he squandered match point to fall 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(6) against Berdych in the most dramatic match of the tournament to date. Tipsarevic hit back from 5-3 down in the breaker to claim match point but he sent a volley tantalisingly wide, then double faulted to hand the Czech a chance of his own and Berdych was left with the easiest of putaways after Tipsarevic slipped.
"I felt that I didn't disappoint anyone with my performance today," Tipsarevic reflected. "I think I could have won. But there is still one more match to go. If I beat myself about it, that's just not going to help against the World No. 1."
Djokovic has won all three of their matches on the tour, most recently in the US Open quarters where Tipsarevic gave him a serious test before retiring injured in the fourth set.
Prediction: Tipsarevic to pull off the upset.
