Wednesday at the 2022 final event opened at Pala Alpitour with a red group second-round matchup between first-round winners Novak Djokovic and Andrey Rublev. The winner of this pair would most likely book their trip to the semi-finals.
So far, Nole has been defeated by Rublev only once, in last year’s finals. In the second case, the Russian tennis player took revenge, and it happened in the Belgrade final. However, it should also be noted that Djokovic played the decisive set there completely with an injury.
The Serbian player, like last year, led the match here with its complete dominance. The serve went fantastically, and he won absolutely all points with the first attempt (17/17). Rublev tried until the end to level with the pace offered by Novak, but he was still broken in the tenth game.
Djokovic increased the pressure in the second set and eventually closed out the match in two sets in 1 hour and 9 minutes.
It should be noted that Novak’s family attended the match in full, together with his wife, both children – Stefani and Tara – were there, which is a source of additional motivation for the tennis player.
Djokovic has already won the first place from the group, but he says that he is not going to spare his strength in the third match against Daniil Medvedev.
Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev will face each other in the night game.
