Novak Djokovic has overcame recurring neck pain and a gruelling three-set battle with relentless Roberto Bautista Agut to advance to the final of the ATP Tour’s Western & Southern Open in New York.
World No.1 Djokovic maintained his unbeaten 2020 season by grinding out a 4-6 6-4 7-6 (7-0) in a three-hour epic on Friday evening.
A 22nd win this year secured the Serb’s seventh final at the tournament – which this year is being held without fans at the site of next week’s US Open amid the new coronavirus outbreak.
He will meet the resurgent Milos Raonic in Saturday’s decider just two days before the start of the US Open, with the year’s first grand slam commencing on Monday at Flushing Meadows.
In the doubles, Australian star Alex de Minaur is through to the final with partner Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain after they accounted for Austin Krajicek and Steve Johnson 7-5 6-4.
De Minaur, who lost his opening single match in New York earlier this week, and Carreno Busta are making their team debut this week and will face British duo Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski for the title.
Raonic wrote BLM, in reference to the Black Lives Matter movement, on the camera lens on court after he reached his biggest final since 2016 with a convincing 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 dismissal of Greek fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The Canadian former world No.3 secured the 30th top-10 victory of his career and is into his fourth Masters 1000 final.
Ranked 30th in the world due to a series of injuries that have hampered him over the past several seasons, Raonic fired 28 winners, including 12 aces to topple the in-form Tsitsipas – who entered their semi-final having won 13 of his past 14 matches on tour.
Raonic faces long odds to beat Djokovic, who has triumphed in all 10 of their previous meetings.
“I’m moving much better than I definitely have in recent years,” Raonic said.
“I’m able to play more on my terms and quicker in the points.”
Djokovic led 5-2 in the deciding set against Bautista Agut and served for the match at 5-3 but got broken by the Spanish eighth seed.
Bautista Agut took four games in a row but failed to serve out the match at 6-5 and was swept in the deciding tiebreak.
“Very strange match I must say,” Djokovic said.
“I don’t know how I won it to be honest, he was the better player.
“I just didn’t feel good on the court at all, in any aspect, of my game and the body but somehow I managed to pull this one through.”