Novak Djokovic, battling through illness and exhaustion from the high heat, has continued his amazing run at the Shanghai Masters by setting a historic age record.
The 38-year-old Serbian tennis star beat Zizou Bergs in two sets, 6-3, 7-5, to reach the tournament semifinals. By winning, Djokovic broke Roger Federer’s age record.
He is now the oldest player ever to reach the semifinals of an ATP Masters 1000 event, which is a major type of tournament in professional tennis.
He set his new record at 38 years and 140 days old beating the record previously held by Federer.
Djokovic achieved the record despite clearly struggling with the conditions. In his previous match, he looked very unwell, even vomiting and needing medical attention on court because of the extreme heat and humidity.
“Just very challenging conditions these days for all the players. Just trying to stay alive on the court and glad to overcome this hurdle,” Djokovic said after his quarterfinal victory.
“There’s always something happening with the body, pretty much every match that I play right now.”
He is into his record-extending 80th Masters 1000 semifinal.
The search results indicate that his semifinal match against Valentin Vacherot is either currently in progress or has just started but the final result is not yet available as of the current time.
