Day 6 is the last day of round robin action in the ATP Finals, and despite the Djokovic-Norrie match being a dead rubber, that doesn’t mean that the quality will dip at all. There are plenty of points and dollars at stake, and both players should bring their best. Who will win and who will fall short? Read on for my best guess!
ATP Finals Day 6 Prediction
Novak Djokovic vs Cam Norrie
Head to Head: never played
Novak Djokovic has had a perfect start to the ATP Finals. He hasn’t dropped a set in his two matches here and has won 62/70 first-serve points in the two matches combined (89%). One might not think, given Djokovic’s counterpunching abilities, that a lightning-fast hard court would best suit his game. But, the surface in Turin is actually playing to Djokovic’s game, because his anticipation and speed are so good that he’s still able to counterpunch, but the surface also gives his serve and groundstrokes an extra boost to make them seem impossible to stop.
Cam Norrie stepped in to take the place of Stefanos Tsitsipas, who withdrew due to an elbow injury. In his first match of the tournament against Casper Ruud, Norrie took the first set, but eventually fell in three to the Norwegian. If Norrie wants to be competitive with Djokovic, he will need to win more than 66% of his first-serve points, which was the case against Ruud.
These two have never played before. The quick surface, while good for Djokovic, doesn’t suit Norrie’s game. The long windup on his forehand means that opponents can rush him from that wing. In addition, as mentioned before, this surface breeds very serve-dependent tennis. If Norrie is unable to really inject pace into that serve, especially against the best returner of all-time in Djokovic, he’s going to be in huge trouble in this match.
Norrie has to try to make this as awkward as possible for Djokovic. But, as was the case for Rublev against Djokovic, there’s nothing Norrie can do that Djokovic can’t do better. And that makes for one-way traffic.
Prediction: Djokovic in 2
Main Photo from Getty.
