ATP World Tour Finals 2021 Results: Novak Djokovic Win Highlights Wednesday's Play

The 2021 ATP World Tour Finals continued on Wednesday with two more round-robin matches. 

Novak Djokovic took on Andrey Rublev in the first match on center court. The top seed won in straight sets to win the Green Group and advance to the semifinals. It also marked his 50th match victory of the season, 

The second match of the day was supposed to pit Casper Ruud against Stefanos Tsitsipas, but Tsitsipas announced he had to withdraw from the tournament due to an elbow injury. 

Cameron Norrie took Tsitsipas' spot in the Green Group. The 26-year-old has two singles titles on his resume already this season, including at the BNP Paribas Open last month. 

Ruud is playing his second match of the tournament. He lost to Djokovic in straight sets on Monday. 

Wednesday's Results

No. 1 Novak Djokovic def. No. 5 Andrey Rublev, 6-3, 6-2

No. 8 Casper Ruud def. Cameron Norrie, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4

Thursday Schedule

No. 3 Alexander Zverev vs. No. 7 Hubert Hurkacz (8 a.m. ET)

No. 2 Daniil Medvedev vs. Jannik Sinner (3 p.m. ET)

Green Group Standings

1. Novak Djokovic (2-0)

2. Andrey Rublev (1-1)

3. Casper Ruud (1-1)

4. Cameron Norrie (0-1)

5. Stefanos Tsitsipas (0-1; withdrew)

Red Group Standings

1. Daniil Medvedev (2-0)

2. Alexander Zverev (1-1)

3. Jannik Sinner (1-0)

4. Hubert Hurkacz (0-2)

5. Matteo Berrettini (0-1; withdrew)

Standings via ATPTour.com

Day 4 Recap

Djokovic only needed 68 minutes to put away Rublev 6-3, 6-2 to reach the semifinals for the second consecutive year. 

The Serbian star had his serve working from the start. He had 14 aces in two sets, with the final one coming on match point. 

On the rare occasion when his serve wasn't working, Djokovic was doing everything else well. His defense and ball placement were on point, leaving Rublev scrambling to find answers that weren't available. 

Rublev had one moment at the start of the match when it looked like he might present a significant challenge to Djokovic. He broke Djoker's serve in the first game, but that would be his high point. 

“I don’t know how nervous I was because I was not thinking about it. Today was still a lot of emotions and I could feel it during the rallies,” Rublev told reporters after the match. 

Djokovic has been on a roll all year. He has only lost six singles matches, including two in the Olympics. The 34-year-old is on a six-match winning streak since falling to Daniil Medvedev in the U.S. Open final. 

Roger Federer holds the record for most ATP Tour Finals tournament wins with six. Djokovic can tie his longtime rival with a victory this weekend. It would also give him his sixth singles title in 2021, which would be his most in a season since 2016 (seven). 

Going back to his opening match against Djokovic, Ruud dropped his first three sets of the tournament. Norrie stunned the No. 8 seed out of the gate by winning six of the first seven games to take the opening set. 

This was Norrie's first official match since losing in the third round of the Paris Masters on Nov. 4. He didn't show any rust 

Ruud got his bearings after taking the initial haymaker. The 22-year-old squared things up with a 6-3 win in the second thanks in large part to hitting five of his 10 aces in the set. 

The third set was more of the same, with Ruud jumping out to a 5-3 advantage. Norrie tried to make a comeback by holding serve in the ninth game to extend the match. 

Ruud produced a big first serve on match point to secure the win:

The Norwegian star will face Rublev on Friday in the final match of the Green Group. Rublev has won all four head-to-head meetings between these two, with the most recent matchup coming in the semifinals at the Monte Carlo Masters in April. The winner will advance to the semifinals.