Novak Djokovic’s record at the China Open is a perfect 13-0, and his performance on Saturday was very nearly as impeccable, defeating Florian Mayer, 6-1, 6-4 to return to the final for the third time and set up a meeting with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
In a lovely gesture to the fans, Djokovic has been painstakingly signing the camera in Mandarin characters (or attempting to) after his matches this week, and his tennis against Mayer today had something of the seemingly effortless control of calligraphy. Djokovic led the head-to-head 2-0 coming into this match and opened with an ominous statement of intent, holding to love with back-to-back aces. Mayer also held to love and led 40-15 on his serve at 1-2 when a framed forehand pass from Djokovic surprised him into an error on a makeable volley. That tiny crack was all Djokovic needed to prise Mayer’s game wide open, racing to deuce after a delightfully-played forehand volley and breaking the German – not once – but twice to race to a 5-1 lead. He dropped twice the number of points attempting to serve it out – a backhand into the net and a double fault – than he had dropped on serve during the rest of the set, but it was only the tiniest of blemishes in a set in which Djokovic outmatched Mayer in every category and ended with 26 points to his opponents’ 13.
Mayer was by no means playing badly, however, and he managed to dig in his toes enough in the second set to not be swept away as he had in the first. The German’s unlovely but extremely effective and versatile backhand was on full display as he pulled off some remarkable shots down the line from stretched-out or doubled-over positions, countering Djokovic’s wide forehand enough to earn himself a break point at 0-1. Djokovic, however, was in particularly imperious serving form, making 71 percent of first serves and winning 80 percent of points behind them, and as in the first set he needed only the tiniest opportunity, breaking Mayer to love after he had dropped just one service point in three games. Djokovic’s form was slightly more erratic in the second than in the first – a couple of errant groundstrokes giving up another break point to be saved at 4-3, and another double fault as he tried to serve out the match – but ultimately it feels both churlish and excessively picky to be critical of such a dominant
performance against a talented opponent. Djokovic will hope to repeat it in the finals against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.