Novak Djokovic advanced to the Paris Masters final on Saturday, while rival Rafael Nadal was forced to withdraw with an injury.
Djokovic entered his 50th Masters level final after a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory over Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
‘I'm motivated. I want to do well tomorrow,’ said the 16-time major winner. ‘I hope to find my best tennis.’ He will now play Canadian Denis Shapovalov as Nadal reportedly sustained an abdominal injury in his warm-up for the semi-final contest.
The injury occured during a serve and Nadal went to see the tournament doctor, who revealed after testing it was a small strain. Nadal wanted to play but the pain he felt persisted.
‘We can call it unlucky, we can call it different things, but it happened today,’ Nadal said.
‘And when things happen, the only thing that you can do is accept it. And even if it's a tough situation for me, I need to stay positive.
‘Finishing out like this is always a very negative thing, but for the rest of the things of the week have been very positive.’ The Spaniard was only 320 ranking points behind Djokovic and according to the ATP Tour, Nadal will usurp Djokovic as world number one on Monday despite his withdrawal.
But he might not finish the year as number one, which will be decided at the season-ending ATP Tour Finals in London on November 10.
Nadal has never won the Paris title because his time at the tournament has been historically plagued with injury. Previously, he has had to pull out of the tournament seven times and retire from matches twice.
Speaking at a news conference before his third round win over Stan Wawrinka, he said he was ‘scared’ of picking up a problem at the tournament again.
‘It is always historically I have issues at the end of the season,’ Nadal added.
‘I am always a little bit scared because this tournament I had plenty of things during all my career.’ In the first set tie-break, Djokovic double-faulted to give Dimitrov a 5-3 advantage, but the 32-year-old Serb rallied off four straight points to take the set.
‘He was probably the better player in the tie-break,’ said Djokovic. ‘ ‘I managed to get returns into play and just make him play an extra shot. We both really understood the importance of clinching the first set.’ Dimitrov, who is ranked 27th in the world, mishit a return and conceded a break at 2-2 in the second set before Djokovic extended the gap to 4-2 behind his serve.
Djokovic served for the match at 5-4 and completed it in 1 hour 38 minutes to claim his place in a 50th Masters final, where he will aim for a fifth Paris title.
He will now play Shapovalov, who has not beaten him in three previous meetings.
He has played some impressive tennis, yesterday especially against Monfils (in a 6-2, 6-2 quarter-final win),’ Djokovic said when asked about Shapovalov.
‘I'm looking forward to the final. Hopefully I will be able to get the best out of myself tomorrow.’
