Novak Djokovic vs. Diego Schwartzman – Prediction – ATP London (UK) 16.11.2020

H2H: Novak Djokovic v Diego Schwartzman – comparison.

Novak Djokovic is in need of a confidence-boosting win, and this is an ideal matchup for him to begin the campaign. The Serbian holds a dominant 5-0 lead in the H2H series, and he should be able to get the better of the Argentinian once again.

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Novak Djokovic resumed his season with a lot of motivation as he had a few big goals to achieve, but the last few months have been nothing short of a disappointment for the Serbian as things just did not go his way on tour. One of the world #1 Novak Djokovic’s targets in these four months was winning the 18th slam, and he worked and planned for it by playing a few exhibition matches during the tour suspension and traveling to the USA during the pandemic (in the absence of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal). However, the Serbian couldn’t get the job done on the court as he got himself defaulted in the US Open and later failed against Rafael Nadal in the championship match of the French Open.

The defeat at the hands of his arch-rival Rafael Nadal on the Parisian clay also ended Novak Djokovic’s dream of going unbeaten in the whole season. Prior to that, he had played 37 completed matches on the main tour (in 2020) and managed to win them all, which earned him titles at the ATP Cup, Australian Open, Dubai, Cincinnati Masters, and Rome Masters. Things have gone from bad to worse for Novak Djokovic during his recent outing in Vienna a few weeks ago, where he suffered the heaviest defeat of his career at the hands of the lucky loser Lorenzo Sonego in the quarterfinal, 2-6 1-6. However, we shouldn’t be reading too much into that result as the Serbian wasn’t switched on for the majority of that match as he didn’t have any big motivation, having already secured the year-end #1 ranking.

Novak Djokovic now makes his 13th appearance in the ATP Tour Finals (in 14 years) as he bids for the record-tying sixth title in this tournament. He has suffered four group stage exits from ATP Tour Finals, including once in 2019, but hasn’t lost his opening match in this tournament since losing to David Ferrer during his debut campaign way back in 2007.

Diego Schwartzman probably looks a bit out of place in London, but he deserves a lot of credit for capitalizing his chances and qualifying for the year-end championships for the very first time in his career. The top-ranked Argentinian suffered an injury in the early stages of the 2020 season and struggled to win matches for a few weeks after the tour resumption but managed to raise his level and delivered some exceptional results over the last two months, such as finishing as the runner-up in Rome Masters and Cologne and reaching the semifinal in the French Open and quarterfinal in Paris Masters. World #9 Diego Schwartzman has won only 22 matches on indoor hard courts so far in his career, but it includes four runner-up finishes and a semifinal appearance on the main tour, including once in 2020 in Cologne (F) a few weeks ago.

Match Info.