PARIS, Nov 2: Novak Djokovic stayed on track for the year-end No. 1 ranking for a record eighth time by beating Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3, 6-2 in the second round of the Paris Masters on Wednesday.
Djokovic was competing in his first sngles match since mid-September when he played for Serbia in the group stage of the Davis Cup. Djokovic won five straight games to take the opening set with an ace and lead 2-0 in the second set.
The Serbian player only faced one break point that he saved with a forehand cross-court winner at 1-0 in the second set.
A six-time champion at the Paris Masters, Djokovic increased his lead to 5-1 before converting his third match point when Etcheverry netted a backhand.
Djokovic can widen the gap with No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz in the race for the year-end top spot after the Spaniard lost to qualifier Roman Safiullin on Tuesday.
Alcaraz is the only player who can overtake Djokovic after Daniil Medvedev dropped out of contention after he was beaten by Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2) earlier Wednesday.
Medvedev was booed off the court after remonstrating with the crowd during the match.
The crowd upset Medvedev in the 11th game of the second set, jeering him as he was about to serve after he had thrown his racket. The third-ranked Russian went back to his chair and complained to the referee before talking directly to the spectators in French. “If there’s one who whistles, I don’t play,” Medvedev told the crowd. “You don’t whistle, I play. So, you shut your mouths.”
From that moment, the crowd overwhelmingly threw its support behind Dimitrov, and Medvedev appeared to make a rude hand gesture toward some spectators as he walked off the court after the loss.“I play in Bercy much better when there is no crowd at all in attendance,” Medvedev joked afterward, referring to winning the Paris Masters title in 2020 during the pandemic in an empty arena. “That’s the only time I won the tournament.”
WTA FINALS
US Open champion Coco Gauff double-faulted four times in a row while serving for the second set and wound up losing 6-0, 7-5 to three-time major title winner Iga Swiatek in round-robin action at the WTA Finals on a windy Wednesday night.
Gauff led 4-2 in the second set, then was a game away from forcing a third while serving at 5-4. The teenager from Florida went up 15-love, then dropped the game with the series of double-faults. After the fourth, Gauff spiked her racket, then picked it up and tossed it at her bench as she walked to the sideline.
That was part of a stretch in which the American lost nine points in a row and 12 of the last 13 against Swiatek, who improved to 9-1 against Gauff.
Earlier, Gauff chucked her racket after one errant backhand return late in the lopsided opening set.
That was the 22nd 6-0 set won in 2023 by Swiatek, a 22-year-old from Poland who was ranked No. 1 for nearly 1 1/2 years until Aryna Sabalenka overtook her after the U.S. Open in September. Swiatek is the first woman to win at least 20 sets by a 6-0 score in two consecutive seasons since Steffi Graf and Monica Seles both did it in 1991-92.
Swiatek improved to 2-0 in round-robin play, while Gauff dropped to 1-1. Both will play their last group matches Friday.
The other singles match Wednesday at the season-ending championship – which is for the top eight players in women’s tennis – was Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova against three-time major finalist Ons Jabeur. (PTI)
