Stat of the Day: Novak Djokovic reaches 75th Masters 1000 semifinal of career in Cincinnati

Novak Djokovic moved through to the milestone 75th Masters 1000 semifinal of his career on Friday night with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over American Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals in Cincinnati.

He already holds the record for most Masters 1000 titles (38) and finals (56), and he’s now closing in on most semifinals, too.

The Masters 1000 series of events began in 1990.

MOST CAREER MASTERS 1000 SEMIFINALS:
76: Rafael Nadal
75: Novak Djokovic
66: Roger Federer
33: Andy Murray
32: Andre Agassi
31: Pete Sampras
20: Andy Roddick

Having won all six of the pair’s previous meetings, Djokovic came out firing in this one, too, racing through the first set in 20 minutes.

Fritz wasn’t done yet, though, breaking serve straight away in the first game of the second set and eventually building a 4-2 lead with it—but it just wasn’t meant to be for the American as Djokovic won the last four games in a row to close it out after 61 minutes on court.

Perhaps the most impressive match stat of the day: Djokovic converted on all five of his break point opportunities.

The last time Djokovic played Fritz, the Serb prevailed in two tie-breaks at last year’s ATP Finals. This one was much different.

“You analyze the past matches that you played against your next opponent, of course,” Djokovic said in his on-court interview.

“Taylor has been an established Top 10, Top 15 player in the last couple of years, so I know his game really well, but every match is a new match, a new challenge for both of us. We had never faced each other here. Obviously being the No. 1 American, he gets a lot of crowd support. But I just managed to get off the blocks really, really strong and played an almost perfect, flawless first set.

“I started off really poorly in the second and handed him the break, but from 2-4 down I played four really solid games in the second.

"Overall just a great performance.”

Standing between Djokovic and an incredible 57th Masters 1000 final will be Alexander Zverev, who defeated Adrian Mannarino in his quarterfinal match earlier in the evening session, 6-2, 6-3.

Zverev defeated Djokovic in their most recent meeting in the semifinals of the 2021 ATP Finals, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-3, but Djokovic leads the overall head-to-head, 7-4, including 6-3 on hard courts.