Saturday 18 November 2017

Sock beats Zverev into semi final

The round robin matches have been completed for those in the Boris Becker Group at the ATP Finals in London.

After dropping the opening set to Marin Cilic (5) in a tie break, Roger Federer (2) came back strongly to win the next two 6-4 6-1 to preserve his undefeated status and ensure Cilic left the English capital winless.

That match had no effect on the semi final line up since Federer was already qualified.

The next match would determine who joined the Swiss master.and Alexander Zverev (3) played Jack Sock (8) for the spot.

Sock entered the clash in the peak of form, having won the Paris Masters 1000 title in the past week or so. He pipped the German in a competitive opening set, converting one of a number of break points available to both players. 6-4 and the early lead.

Zverev turned it around in set two, winning 70% of points on his serve, compared with 41% for Sock. Two service breaks for the third seed and the match was even.

Each player feasted on the second serve of the other in the deciding third set, assisting in five service breaks. Sock owned three of these, enough to claim the set, the match 6-4 1-6 6-4: and a semi final berth.

That is against Grigor Dimitrov.

The win takes Sock to a new career high ranking of eight, leaving the injured Stan Wawrinka at nine, dropping behind both Sock and Goffin because of his absence in this tournament.

One of the final round robin matches in the Pete Sampras Group will feature alternate player Pablo Carreno Busta battling Grigor Dimitrov (6) in effectively an exhibition since Dimitrov has already booked a semi final spot.

The other match between Dominic Thiem (4) and David Goffin (7) will see the winner take the fourth semi final spot and earn a clash with Roger Federer.

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