Brilliant Novak Djokovic crushes Rafa Nadal to reach ATP World Tour final

ByEurosport

Updated 21/11/2015 at 20:53 GMT

Novak Djokovic turned on the style to outclass old adversary Rafael Nadal and reach the final of the ATP World Tour Finals with a 6-3 6-3 victory at the 02 Arena on Saturday.

The world number one is bidding for a fifth title at the elite end-of-season event that involves the world's top eight players to go with his successes in 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Spaniard Nadal had looked more like his old dominant self with round-robin wins against Andy Murray, Stanislas Wawrinka and David Ferrer, but the world number five was no match for Djokovic who was at his clinical best.

Novak Djokovic has been in unstoppable form in London

Image credit: Imago

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Djokovic has now drawn level with Nadal in head-to-head matches in what is the most prolific rivalry since tennis turned professional, with both players having 23 victories.

"Obviously, after 46 matches and 10 years of professional tennis, I managed to tie my head-to-head score with Nadal," Djokovic told reporters. "It took a lot of time.

"I think I was a few levels under him at the beginning of my career when I started playing professional tennis. Nadal was alongside Federer dominating the tour. I just couldn't really do much against him."

"I won the last, what, three times we played against each other (than Saturday). That all plays a major role in the mental approach to these match-ups."

World number one Djokovic, bidding for a fourth consecutive title at the season-ender, and a fifth in total, launched an early onslaught, breaking Nadal's serve in the second game of the match with four sweetly-struck, clean winners.

From then on he was barely troubled by the 14-times grand slam champion who could make little impression and did not glimpse a single break point in the 79-minute encounter.

Novak Djokovic - Masters 2015

Image credit: AFP

"Novak for the moment is almost unbeatable," Nadal told reporters. "He was better than me and he deserved to do what he did during the whole season.

"He played just fantastic. When somebody's doing like this, just the only thing I can do is congratulate him and just wish not the best of luck for the next year!"

Rafael Nadal was outclassed by Novak Djokovic in their semi-final at the 02.

Image credit: Eurosport

Djokovic, who would have claimed a rare calendar-year grand slam this year but for a French Open final defeat by Stanislas Wawrinka, suffered a first indoor defeat in three-and-a-half years against Roger Federer this week.

He responded by beating Tomas Berdych to secure a semi-final berth in London and was back at full throttle against Nadal, crunching 24 winners and dropping just three points on his first serve.

Some trademark defence followed by a dipping backhand that forced a Nadal volley error gave the Serbian two break points in the fifth game of the second set and he converted after Nadal succumbed in a fierce baseline rally.

There was no way back from there for Nadal. Djokovic was clearly in a hurry to finish the job, breaking again at 5-3 with another flurry of winners.

He will face either Federer or Wawrinka in Sunday's final.

Reporting via Reuters

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