As the saying goes: Legends can be legendary.
Four-time Shanghai Champion Novak Djokovic Apart from a set deficit in difficult conditions on Sunday night, beating Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Djokovic has always been well received in China, using crowds to conduct retro rally as he bids for a record 41st Masters 1000 title. The energy of the crowd played a key role, and Djokovic was excited after his quarrel.
“It’s amazing. I can’t ask for more. Grinding for nearly three hours, the third round master was at 38, a full stadium cheering my name, which was a dream for me.”
The 38-year-old 24-time Grand Slam champion became the oldest player in 16 rounds in tournament history, and it improved to 23-0 before the Shanghai quarter-finals.
He will face Spain’s Jaume Munar in 16 rounds.
Djokovic twice won two games from his defeat in hot and humid conditions, but forced the decision-maker by breaking through the second game in the 12th game of the game.
Djokovic played a quick role in the final match as he played a retro point in the fourth game, which put Hanfmann over 3-1 in an extended rally. That’s all the advantage the Serbs need – he locked in the rest of the victory in two hours and 42 minutes.
“When you have more than 80% humidity day after day, it’s cruel,” Djokovic said of the conditions. “That’s it, you just have to deal with it.
“I had to really get through the storm today, and Yannick had an incredible game from the start. In the first set, a mediocre game around me was enough to break the serve and win the game. It was hard to read his serve, his serve was very accurate, very high percentage, just every single ball he had on the racetrack.”
Djokovic beat 19 unmandatory turnovers to win 26 winners, while Hanfmann beat 38 winners and beat 33 unmandatory turnovers.
Finally, it was Djokovic who served better. He ended with 85% of the first point he won, losing only six first points in Games 2 and 3.
“At the end of the second set, I started to feel like I could stay in the rally, read his serve and let him play extra… Overall, it was a great fight and fight…I had a lot of guts hanging on.”
