London: World No.1 Novak Djokovic outplayed 10th seed Denis Shapovalov in straight sets to reach the men’s singles final of Wimbledon on Friday. The Serbian defeated Shapovalov 7-6(6-3), 7-5, 7-5 in two hours and 44 minutes on the Centre Court to move one step closer to winning his sixth Wimbledon crown.
In Sunday’s final, Djokovic will meet Italian seventh seed Matteo Berrettini, who stormed into his maiden Grand Slam final with a four-set 6-3, 6-0, 6-7(3), 6-4 victory over Hubert Hurkacz of Poland. In fact, it was Hurkacz, who threw Swiss legend Roger Federer out of the tournament.
“I don’t think that the scoreline says enough about the performance and about the match. He (Shapovalov) was serving for the first set and he was probably the better player for most of the second set,” Djokovic said after the match.
Djokovic thus joins Federer (31) as the only two men to reach 30 Grand Slam finals. If he wins on Sunday it will give Djokovic his third major trophy of the season and move him to within a US Open crown of completing the calendar-year Grand Slam.
Djokovic has never lost to Berrettini in their two ATP encounters so far but will have a tough time facing the Italian in the final. This is also the first time the Serbian advanced to the Wimbledon final losing just one set. The Serbian lost two sets en route to the championship match at the All England Club in 2013, 2015 and 2019.
