By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, November 17, 2016
Novak Djokovic shredded David Goffin, 6-1, 6-2, concluding World Tour Finals round-robin play undefeated and inching ahead of Andy Murray in the race for No. 1.
Photo credit: Ashley Western/CameraSport
Arriving in London chasing Andy Murray for the year-end world No. 1 ranking, Novak Djokovic continues to force the field into playing catch-up.
A dominant Djokovic reeled off 11 of the first 13 games annihilating alternate David Goffin, 6-1, 6-2, to complete World Tour Finals round-robin play with a perfect 3-0 record in the Ivan Lendl Group.
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It is Djokovic's fourth undefeated round-robin result in the last four years. Djokovic has won 21 of his last 22 matches at the O2 Arena with his lone loss in that span coming to Roger Federer in round-robin play last year.
More importantly, the second-ranked Serbian inched ahead of Murray in the race for year-end No. 1. Djokovic now has 11,380 ranking points putting him 70 points ahead of Murray, who grinded through a three hour, 20 minute conquest of Kei Nishikori yesterday.
Murray must beat Stan Wawrinka in tomorrow's final round-robin match to keep pace with Djokovic and set up the possibility of a London final between the top two to decide the year-end No. 1 ranking.
Playing points with patient aggression, the 12-time Grand Slam champion outclassed Goffin today.
The 25-year-old Goffin stepped in for Gael Monfils, who pulled out of the tournament with a rib injury last night. As the first Belgian to play a singles match at the season-ending event, Goffin never really gained a foot-hold into the match.
Djokovic dissected the world No. 11 in baseline exchanges and shredded his second serve, winning 16 of 25 points played on Goffin's second delivery. The slender Belgian did himself no favors serving just 46 percent to give Djokovic plenty of looks at his second serve.
Goffin double faulted on break point gifting Djokovic the break and a 3-1 lead.
The four-time defending champion streaked through the final four games of the first set.
The only issue Djokovic encountered in the set came after he held serve for 4-1. The second seed, upset that chair umpire Fergus Murphy hit him with a time violation warning without first issuing a soft warning, castigated the chair umpire for what he believed was a clueless call.
"You have no clue about the game. You have no clue about the game," said Djokovic during the changeover after the fifth game. "Do you think that's fair?"
"That's the way we've been enforcing the rule for about two years," Murphy replied flatly.
Aside from that tiff, a commanding Djokovic was too tough.
The five-time World Tour Finals champion breezed through 10 of 11 points building a 3-1 second-set lead. Djokovic denied the only break point he faced serving out the match in 69 minutes.