Nadal edges closer to maiden Paris Masters title
November 2, 2019
PARIS (Reuters) - Rafael Nadal edged closer to a maiden Paris Masters title as he ended local favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s resilience in a 7-6(4) 6-1 victory to reach the semi-finals.
The 19-times grand slam champion, who will take over from Novak Djokovic as world number one on Monday, faced no break points in a ruthless display to set up a meeting with Canadian Denis Shapovalov.
Shapovalov crushed Gael Monfils 6-2 6-2 to deny the Frenchman a spot in the ATP Finals, effectively handing the remaining ticket for the Nov. 10-17 showdown in London to Italian Matteo Berrettini.
Djokovic brutally dismantled Greek seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-1 6-2 to advance into the last four, where he will take on Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, a solid 6-2 7-5 victor over Chile’s Cristian Garin.
Forced to a tiebreak by Tsonga, Nadal stayed composed before the Frenchman lost confidence and allowed the Spaniard to race to a routine win at Bercy.
Earlier, Djokovic showed no signs of the cold that had bothered him in his first two rounds to destroy Tsitsipas in under an hour.
“I played one of the best matches of the season. I prepared myself very well for this match. I lost to Stefanos about three weeks ago in Shanghai,” said Djokovic.
“And obviously I went through the videos and (got) understanding on what I did well, what I didn’t do so well, what I can do better.
“Obviously different conditions, you know, indoors, but I managed to really start off well and didn’t really allow him too many opportunities to really come back.”
