David Goffin clinches victory against Legendary and star player Rafael Nadal on Friday in Sydney to Keep Belgium going in their quarterfinals at the inaugural ATP Cup team event
David Goffin who currently ranks 11 in the world, emerged out to among the few players who could handle Rafael Nadal tricky spins. Which he played beautifully on both while returning the service as well as on the baseline with a score of 6-4 7-6 (3) victory keeping Belgium alive in the contest.
The tie-break would now be determined by a risky doubles match after Spain already having the game on their side with opening singles early in the evening when Roberto Bautista Agut defeated Kimmer Coppejans 6-1 6-4. And the victorious team of the deciding doubles will play Australia in Saturday’s semi-final, while Serbia, led by world number two Novak Djokovic, take on Russia.
During the day session, Novak Djokovic fought against some of the trickiest challenges from Canadian star Denis Shapovalov to ignite his country into the semi-finals with a 4-6 6-1 7-6 (4) victory. It was Djokovic’s fifth victory over the 20-year-old Canadian which was the toughest so far.
Apart from the players, it was also the crowd who played a major role in the after stages of the event, after lifting host nation Australia on Thursday and then Serbia on Friday. According to Djokovic, he understood why Shapovalov was frustrated as the noise kept disrupting the play.
“They were so loud, they were engaged, sometimes a little bit too much,” said Djokovic.
“It was a Davis Cup-like atmosphere,” he said, referring to the traditional men’s team tennis event to which the ATP Cup is being compared.
Djokovic lost the first set against the Canadian Daniil Medvedev and struggled very early in the second half as soon as the game turned out to be aggressive. Followed by a tie-break after few third-set scenes
With all the heavy drama, Serbia joins Australia and Russia in qualifying for the semi-finals.
