Novak Djokovic sails past Taylor Fritz in Paris Masters semi-finals

Novak Djokovic moved through to the Paris Masters semi-final after a convincing straight-sets win over Taylor Fritz 6-4 6-3.

Taylor Fritz has been one of the better performing players in the past few months on the ATP tour. Today against Djokovic he ran out of steam and was beaten rather easily. Despite the rather easy win for Djokovic, it was not without issues. The Serbian entered the match with high motivation wanted to go deep in Paris in order to secure the year-end No. 1 ranking which he desperately wants.

Djokovic has spoken many times about this desire to finish as year-end No. 1 and with today's win that scenario is looking more likely. It was an entertaining match that featured a great fight from Fritz but the American was both overmatched and lacked energy towards the end. Djokovic took an early 2-0 lead but Fritz pulled it back.

Djokovic then raised his level even more to secure the 5-3 lead but Fritz did not give up so easily pulling it right back to 5-4. In the end, he simply had not enough to hold on as Djokovic once again played a brilliant game to secure the first set with 6-4. The Serbian did not serve too well today especially at the start of the 2nd set. That allowed Fritz to break him early for the 1-0 lead but Djokovic won it right back.

Fritz was having trouble against Djokovic's return and he is not the only one. The Serbian player frustrated many with his deep returns and today was no different. Fritz forced a couple of break points at 1-1 but failed to convert and after that his level dropped off. Djokovic cruised to a 6-2 end set finish. The key reason Fritz lost this match was winning only 5 of 20 2nd service points.