As the saying goes: legends gonna legend.
Four-time Shanghai champion Novak Djokovic rallied from a one-set deficit in difficult conditions on Sunday night, defeating Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Always well-received in China, Djokovic used the crowd to engineer a vintage rally as he makes a bid for a record 41st Masters 1000 title. The energy of the crowd played a key role, said a thrilled Djokovic on court after his tussle.
“It’s stunning. I cannot ask for more. Grinding almost three hours, third round of a Masters at 38, with a full stadium cheering my name, it’s a dream come true for me,” he said.
The 38-year-old 24-time Grand Slam champion becomes the oldest player to reach the round of 16 in tournament history, and improves to 23-0 before the quarterfinal stage at Shanghai.
He will face Spain’s Jaume Munar in the round of 16.
After dropping the opening set against scorching Hanfmann in hot and humid conditions, Djokovic was two games from defeat on two occasions, but he came through a tight second set by breaking in the 12th game of the set to force a decider.
It didn’t take long for Djokovic to capitalize in the final set as he played a vintage point in the fourth game, outlasting Hanfmann in an extended rally to break for 3-1. It was all the advantage the Serbian would need – he held serve the rest of the way to lock down the victory in two hours and 42 minutes.
“It’s brutal when you have over 80 percent humidity day after day,” Djokovic said of the conditions. “It is what it is, you just have to deal with it.
“I had to really weather the storm today, Yannick played an incredible match from the beginning. One mediocre game from my side in the first set at one-all was enough for him to break the serve and win the set. It was so hard to read his serve, he was serving so accurately and with high percentage – just smacking every ball that he had on his racquet.”
Djokovic finished with 26 winners against 19 unforced errors, while Hanfmann hit 38 winners against 33 unforced errors.
In the end it was Djokovic’s serve that held up better. He finished with 85 percent of first-serve points won, and lost just six first-serve points across sets two and three.
“Towards the end of the second set I started to feel that I could stay in the rally and read his serve and make him play an extra shot… All in all it was a great fight and battle… I hung in there with a lot of guts.”
