KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. — Who is going to stop Novak Djokovic?
The man from Serbia continued his incredible assault on the ATP World Tour Friday, dispatching Mardy Fish 6-3, 6-1 to win his 25th straight match and advance into Sunday’s final at the Sony Ericsson Open.
Djokovic, ranked No. 2 in the world, will face world No. 1Rafael Nadal in Sunday’s final. Nadal defeated chief rival Roger Federer 6-3, 6-2 Friday night in the second men’s semifinal.
The turning points in the match came when Djokovic broke Fish’s serve in the sixth game of the first set with a furious baseline rally, highlighted by some dramatic defensive play from the Serbian. Fish had an excellent chance to square the match with two break points at 15-40 with Djokovic serving for the set at 5-3. On his first break point, Fish had a chance to put away a swinging cross-court forehand volley, but instead chose to try and hit the shot behind Djokovic. The Serb was able to change directions and hit a strong backhand back at Fish at the net. The American was unable to handle the shot and hit a backhand volley wide. Fish then missed a forehand into the net, hit an unforced error off the backhand side before Djokovic hit a service winner to close out the set.
“I don’t feel invincible. I don’t feel that I can’t lose on the court,” said Djokovic. “What I feel is confidence. What I feel is that I’m playing the best tennis of my life. This is as simple as that.”
Where does Djokovic’s winning streak match up against the best of all time?
Looking through THE BUD COLLINS HISTORY OF TENNIS ($35.95, New Chapter Press, www.NewChapterMedia.com), Djokovic is still a long ways away from the all-time record, as documented below from the book.
Consecutive Singles Match Victories
Men
98 Bill Tilden 1924-1925
92 Don Budge 1937-1938
55 Roy Emerson 1964
50** Guillermo Vilas 1977
44 Ivan Lendl 1981-1982
42 John McEnroe 1984
41 Roger Federer 2006-2007
41 Bjorn Borg 1978
Women
182 Suzanne Lenglen 1921-1926
158 Helen Wills Moody 1926-1933
116 Suzanne Lenglen 1919-1921
111 Alice Marble 1938-1940
74 Martina Navratilova 1984
66 Steffi Graf 1990
58 Martina Navratilova 1985-1987
** Includes four match victories at an event in Rye, NY in August of 1977 not recognized by the ATP, but counted by Bud Collins and other historians
The Djokovic-Fish match was delayed by rain by 54 minutes at 2-2 in the first set.