Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal in World Tour Finals semi-final

When Novak Djokovic plays Roger Federer on the southern reaches of the Thames on Sunday night for the 44th time in one of sport’s great rivalries, he will be driven by an urge to prove he is not only the best player in the world this week but the best of his era.

With this win, Djokovic equals his all-time record against Nadal at 23-23 and has won at least 2/3 of matches against every other Top 15 player – except Federer, whom he trails 21-22.

“Novak should be knocked out by now!”

“No, I am joking”.

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in action during his match against Spain’s Rafael Nadal Reuters / Su …

The world number one outclassed Rafael Nadal to win a surprisingly brief semi-final 6-3 6-3.

Nadal said after the match that the Serb is “almost unbeatable” when in this mood.

Djokovic was supreme in every phase of the game in grinding down the long-ago world’s best, Nadal, and what we have in prospect is a delicious contrast of styles: the revived serve-volley game of Federer against the driving, relentless, all-court dominance of Djokovic. “It took a lot of time”. Rafa played good after a slow start but the match was never really in doubt with Djokovic in comfort and command throughout.

“I think I was a few levels under him at the beginning of my career”.

“When I feel like I’m dictating the pace, the match itself, most of the rallies, I feel like I’m on top of my opponent”.

The Spaniard had been aggressive in his play in the first three matches, finding depth and penetration with his groundstrokes, but they had little effect on Djokovic.

Djokovic, bidding for a fourth straight title at the season-ender, and a fifth in total, made his intentions clear from the start as the ball whistled off his strings. The 34-year-old is proving ageless, defeating the French Open champion after showing only limited vulnerability for a portion of the first set before winning the second set in clinical fashion.

With Nadal already in the semi-finals from the Ilie Nastase Group and Ferrer going home after two defeats, it could have been a non-event but the packed arena was treated to the longest match of the group stage with Nadal winning 6-7(7-2) 6-3 6-4 after two hours 37 minutes.

Asked to pick out Djokovic’s main strengths, Nadal said: “Everything”.

“It will be a flawless ending only if I win”, said Federer, who is playing in the tournament for a record 14th successive year and is through to his 10th final, six of which he has won.

As well as closing his press conference wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and looking forward (!) to seeing us all again, he also found the humour in his loss, saying: “He played just fantastic”.

He responded by beating Czech Tomas Berdych to secure a semi-final berth in London and was back at full throttle against Nadal, crunching 24 winners and dropping just three points on his first serve. Nadal seemed to have found a bit of his rhythm back as he holds his next service game with a brilliant in-air smash.