Novak Djokovic is closing in on even more rarified air in tennis. The 24-time Grand Slam singles champion’s pursuit of his 100th career ATP singles title will continue on Sunday in the final of the Miami Open after he defeated an ailing Grigor Dimitrov in a one-sided Friday semifinals.
The Bulgarian, who needed medical attention after saivng a match point to defeat Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo in a nearly three-hour quarterfinal on Wednesday, battled admirably in his return to the court, but didn’t have much to compete with an in-form Djokovic after the opening minutes of the match. Dimitrov broke serve in the first game, but things went south for the 33-year-old in more ways than one from there.
The match was briefly interrupted a short time later as a heckler prodding Dimitrov from the stands was ejected from Hard Rock Stadium, and after the eventful beginning, Djokovic put together a seven-game run from 2-2 in the first set. He eventually extended his overall head-to-head against Dimitrov to 13-1 with a 6-2, 6-3 win in just over an hour, moving through to his 142nd career ATP singles final and 60th at ATP Masters 1000 level.
He’ll face Jakub Mensik, who defeated No. 3 seed Taylor Fritz later in the evening in a third-set tiebreak.
