As the José María Martín Carpena Arena reverberated to the sound of drumming and chants from the Stirling Uni Barmy Army, a diehard group of British Davis Cup followers, Djokovic urged the fans to “shut up” and “show some respect”. The incident brought a largely uneventful tie to an unexpectedly controversial conclusion as Serbia made comfortable progress to the semi-finals.

“We’re going to have a good sleep tonight,” Djokovic following his 6-4, 6-4 victory. “Keep going, keep going. Learn how to respect players. No, you shut up. No, you be quiet.” 

It was the second time in six months that a meeting between Djokovic and Norrie has ended on a sour note, although this time at least the hostility was not between the players. When they met in Rome this summer, the 28-year-old Briton drew Djokovic’s displeasure by striking him with a close-range overhead. Here, the Serbian world No 1 simply picked up from where he left off at the recent ATP Finals in Turin, where the derision of the Italian crowd seemed to spur him on. 

Such confrontations seem to be par for the course for Djokovic these days, and there will doubtless be more to come when Serbia take on Jannik Sinner’s Italy on Saturday. No doubt the 24-time grand slam champion will be ready. Against Norrie, he spent the first set quietly simmering in the face of what he felt was persistent barracking; when he won it, he cupped a hand to his ear and blew a sarcastic kiss in the direction of one of his tormentors.

“Disrespect, but again, that’s something I kind of have to be prepared for,” said the 36-year-old. “In the Davis Cup, it’s normal that sometimes fans step over the line. But in the heat of the moment, you react too, and you show that you don’t allow this kind of behaviour. 

“They can do whatever they want, but I’m going to respond to that. That’s what happened. And in the end, I was trying to talk and they were purposely starting to play the drums so that I don’t talk. They were trying to annoy me the entire match.”

Leon Smith, the British team captain, acknowledged that some spectators may have crossed a line, but argued that passionate crowds are part of the competition’s appeal. 

“The best [ties] are the noisy ones,” said Smith. “When it’s flat and dead and no one’s clapping, no music, it’s pretty boring. That’s one of the things that’s good about Davis Cup and the team competition, that actually you’re kind of meant to make noise. 

“There is always a bit that goes over, comments; I could hear a couple. I don’t think it’s that bad. I would hate to see it quietening down, because there’s enough quiet tennis as it is. If anything, that atmosphere is good for us.”

Norrie competed with typical doggedness, and was never more impressive than when he fended off five break points to avoid going a double break down in the second set. Yet the world No 18 has been struggling for form of late, losing five of his past six matches, and he was overmatched from the outset. Djokovic, intent on rounding off a season that has brought three more grand slam titles with a second Davis Cup triumph for his country, broke early in each set and remained in control throughout. 

Jack Draper was earlier defeated 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (8-6) by Miomir Kecmanovic, scotching British hopes of forcing a decisive doubles rubber. Such a scenario would have swung the odds firmly in favour of Smith’s side, given that Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski both rank among the world’s top 10 doubles players. But an otherwise valiant performance from Draper was undermined by an inability to maintain his level in the decisive tiebreaks, most glaringly when he was derailed by a pair of untimely double faults in the first shootout.

Unless granted a wildcard, British hopes of making next year’s finals will rest on successfully negotiating a qualifier five days after the end of the Australian Open, before navigating the group stage. For Serbia and Djokovic, meanwhile, Italy – and Sinner – await. 

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The flashpoint in a 6-3, 6-4 victory for Djokovic that was inflected throughout by an undercurrent of hostility came midway through the second set, when the Serb raced forward to pick up a Norrie drop shot, responding with a short dink of his own. Norrie’s reply flicked up off the net tape, and it was all Djokovic could do to reflex the ball tamely up into the air. Giving up on the point with the ball still in the air, the top seed turned and began walking back towards the baseline – only for Norrie to belt a smash into his lower right leg.

Djokovic reeled around to see Norrie briefly raise a hand in apology, but it was evidently not enough for the six-time champion, who directed an icy stare towards his opponent. Was the direct hit an accident? As Djokovic acknowledged afterwards, perhaps. But as he also pointed out, peripheral vision tends to be 20/20 at this level, and it was no surprise when the 22-time grand slam champion eyeballed Norrie again at the next changeover.

“I did watch the replay when he hit me,” said Djokovic after claiming a quarter-final place for the 17th year in a row. “Maybe you could say he didn’t hit me deliberately. I don’t know if he saw me. I mean, [peripherally] you can always see where the player is positioned on the court. 

“The ball was super slow and super close to the net. I just turned around because the point was over for me.

“It was not so much maybe about that, but it was maybe a combination of things. From the very beginning, he was doing all the things that were allowed. He’s allowed to take a medical timeout. He’s allowed to hit a player. He’s allowed to say ‘C’mon!’ in the face more or less every single point from basically [the] first game.

“Those are the things that we players know in the locker room it’s not fair play, it’s not how we treat each other. But, again, it’s allowed.”

Norrie’s mood could perhaps be traced back to Djokovic’s late emergence from the treatment room before the match, after reportedly suffering a minor shoulder injury while practising earlier in the morning. The British No 1 certainly cut an unusually animated figure as he battled in vain to retrieve an early break, and at one point Djokovic responded in kind, sending a huge roar of self-encouragement back down the court after holding serve. 

Having broken in the penultimate game, Djokovic was made to wait before serving out the contest as Norrie received treatment on a hip injury. While hardly Norrie’s fault, the timing of the delay was unfortunate and the post-match handshake was a frosty affair, Djokovic declining to look at his opponent. He later expressed puzzlement about Norrie’s behaviour. 

“I got along with Cameron really well all these years that he’s been on the tour,” said Djokovic, who will be replaced by the vanquished Carlos Alcaraz at the top of the rankings after the tournament.

“Practised with each other. He’s a very nice guy off the court, so I don’t understand this kind of attitude on the court, to be honest. 

“But it is what it is. He brought the fire, and I responded to that. I’m not going to allow someone behaving like this, just bending my head. I’m going to respond to that. That’s all it is. What happens on the court, we leave it on the court, and we move on.”

Given that Djokovic next faces Holger Rune, another player not averse to bringing the heat, the 35-year-old may well be moving on to more of the same. Rune, seeded seventh, stunned Djokovic in the final of the Paris Masters last November and said he “couldn’t wait” to face the Serb again.

“I don’t think it’s going to be so different [on clay],” said the 20-year-old Dane after coming through 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 against Australia’s Alexei Popyrin. 

“Novak is an all-court player. I think he’s tough no matter where you play him. He’s shown that. He’s won Rome six times. It says itself that it’s going to be tough. I have to be at my best.”

As for Norrie, a player rarely drawn into controversy, it will be fascinating to hear his side of the story when he defends his title in Lyon next week.

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Admittedly, both wins came in 2019, well before Ruud won three straight clay-court titles or made his first grand slam final at Roland Garros. Yet both were significant. The first, in São Paulo, earned Garin a place in his maiden tour-level final while denying Ruud the same opportunity. With the second, which came in Houston, Texas a month later, Garin secured his first title while thwarting Ruud’s bid for a first trophy. It is fair to say the pair have history.

So while it is tempting to see Ruud’s 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) defeat to the Chilean qualifier in Indian Wells as part of the wider malaise that has afflicted him this season, judgement should perhaps be reserved until later this month, when he attempts to defend the 600 points he received for reaching last year’s Miami Open final. The world No 4’s defeat will still go down as a shock, of course, given that he sits 93 places above Garin in the rankings. Yet the result, which prolongs Ruud’s wait for back-to-back wins in 2023, was of a piece with a personal rivalry that Garin now leads by three victories to one.

It is not difficult to see why Ruud struggles against Garin. Nicknamed “EL Tanque” in his home country, the imposing 26-year-old has the weapons to mix it with the best, most notably a powerhouse forehand that, lethal in its own right, also affords ample opportunity to get forward. Happy to trade sledgehammer blows with Ruud from the baseline, Garin fired 27 of his 39 winners from that wing. But it was his bold and decisive net game that proved key at the pivotal moments. Garin slotted away a backhand volley to earn the opportunity that led to a decisive break in the fifth game of the opening set, and dominated from the net to win the second-set tiebreak.

“I like to play aggressive and move a lot to the net, and I think Casper is a really good player when you give time to him, so I try to go aggressive, go to the net, and play like that,” said Garin after claiming his first win over a top-10 player on a hard court. 

“I’ve known Casper for a very long time, so it’s very special to keep playing like this in this tournament, so I want to keep going.”

To do so, Garin will need to find a way past a seeded player for a third straight match. Having defeated Yoshihito Nishioka, the 29th seed, in the opening round, the Chilean will face the Spanish world No 28 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, a 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 winner over 13th seed Karen Khachanov, for a place in the last eight. 

Elsewhere in a lower half now shorn of its top two seeds, following Stefanos Tsitsipas’s opening-round defeat to Jordan Thompson, Alexander Zverev battled past Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 to set up a meeting with Daniil Medvedev.

Medvedev, the fifth seed, notched up a 16th straight win by seeing off Ilya Ivashka of Belarus 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. The Russian, who is seeking a fourth successive title following his recent wins in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai, is not underestimating the threat posed by Zverev as the German continues his return from the ankle injury he suffered at Roland Garros last year. 

“He’s coming back, he’s playing better and better,” said Medvedev. “I think he’s not yet at where he was when he got injured, but every new match against a top player is an opportunity for him to bring back this level. So I’m going have to try to play my best, and postpone it.”

Cameron Norrie, the 2021 champion, survived a major scare against Taro Daniel of Japan, recovering from a set and a break down to prevail 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 6-2. He will next face Andrey Rublev, the sixth seed, who came through 7-5, 6-3 against Ugo Humbert of France. 

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With just over a fortnight to go until he begins his title defence at Melbourne Park, Nadal was beaten 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 by Cameron Norrie as Spain faced Great Britain at the United Cup in Sydney on Saturday. 

“Not a disaster at all,” declared the 22-time grand slam champion, who was generous in his praise for Norrie while acknowledging the need to sharpen his own movement, consistency and decision-making.

But there was a hint of irritation from Nadal afterwards when asked if he was starting to find life on tour heavy going. Clearly eager to scotch speculation about his future, the Spaniard replied pointedly that he was in town to play tennis.

“When the day arrives that [I] go out on court and say, ‘That’s getting hard,’ [it] is the day to say goodbye,” said Nadal with a smile belying his evident distaste for the line of questioning. “I don’t want to. 

“The only reason that [it] makes sense to keep playing [is] if I really enjoy what I do, and if I really feel it. If I don’t feel it, I mean, I did much more than what I ever dreamed. But either way, for me, I lost my match. That’s it, no? 

“Every time that I am coming to a press conference, [it] seems that I have to retire. So you are very, very interested in my retirement. I mean, for the moment, that’s not the case. When this day arrives, I’m going to let you know, guys. Don’t keep going with the retirement [questions], because I’m here to keep playing tennis.”

Nadal, an Olympic gold medallist in singles and doubles and the linchpin of five triumphant Davis Cup campaigns, has traditionally thrived when representing his country. But after an encouraging start to his first official match since November’s ATP Finals, the Majorcan was slowly reeled in by Norrie, who hailed the victory as the finest of his career.

“I think it was, especially on ranking and beating a guy like Rafa as the competitor that he is,” said Norrie, the world No 14, who was without win a against Nadal in four previous meetings. 

“I know it’s his first match of the year, but it was a sick win. He absolutely chopped me the last five or four times I played him, so it is nice to get him once now. I really played well and held my nerve throughout the match.”

Norrie’s win, which was followed in short space by an outstanding 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory for 23-year-old Katie Swan over Nuria Párrizas Díaz, ranked 70th, gave Britain the platform for a 4-1 win over Spain. 

Dan Evans sealed Britain’s place in this Wednesday’s playoff final against either the US, Germany or the Czech Republic with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win over Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Harriet Dart was earlier beaten by world No 13 Paula Badosa, who turned to pickle juice to overcome cramping en route to a 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 win, before Dart and Jonny O’Mara defeated Jessica Bouzas Maneiro and David Vega Hernandez 3-6, 6-2, 10-5 in the concluding mixed doubles.

Evans afterwards paid tribute to the role played by Tim Henman, the British team captain, in driving his side to victory.

“We all grew up watching Tim, who is obviously a very good tennis player – a lot better than basically everyone on the team. He knows so much,” said Evans.  

“It’s amazing to hear his insight into the match. A lot of the time it can be a bit different to what we might be seeing. You sort of trust that, and it really does help.”

The inaugural mixed-team event consists of six groups of three teams playing across a trio of cities – Sydney, Perth and Brisbane. The two group winners from each location will play a “city final” against each other for a place in the last four, with the best-performing runner-up from those matches clinching the fourth semi-final spot.

In Brisbane, Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz combined to complete a 4-1 win for Poland over Kazakhstan with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Zhibek Kulambayeva and Grigoriy Lomakin. The match was notable for an outrageous around-the-netpost winner from Swiatek.

Hurkacz earlier defeated Alexander Bublik 7-6 (10-8), 4-6, 6-3 before Magda Linette gave Poland an unassailable 3-1 lead with a 6-2, 6-1 against Kulambayeva. On day one, Swiatek had handed Poland a 1-0 advantage with a 6-1, 6-3 victory Yulia Putintseva before Timofey Skatov defeated Daniel Michalski 7-6 (9-7), 6-2 to level.

Agnieszka Radwanska’s side will now face Switzerland for a place in the semi-finals, with the top-ranked Swiatek to face Belinda Bencic, the world No 12, in her second singles match of the season on Monday.  

“She’s such an experienced player, and she has a different game style than most of the girls. She’s hitting the ball pretty early and you have to be ready for that, especially on a fast surface,” said Swiatek. “I’m gonna do everything to win.”

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Norrie has been one of the tour’s most consistent performers for the better part of two seasons now, with his inability to translate that form into deep runs at the majors the lone point of frustration. 

The 27-year-old addressed that shortcoming at the All England Club, where he advanced to the semi-finals, and he has since enjoyed a quietly impressive summer on the hard courts of North America, reaching the final in Los Cabos and the last four in Cincinnati. His upward trajectory has continued in New York, where he has yet to drop a set after calmly dispatching Rune, a 19-year-old Dane ranked 33 in the world, 7-5, 6-4, 6-1. 

“To make the second week for the first time [at Wimbledon], that was huge for me,” said Norrie, the British world No 9. “It was a big goal of mine to play well at slams and play deep in slams. 

“I don’t think I played great [in the] first couple of rounds. I was able to feel a lot more relaxed today, and use that momentum from those matches to get through those tough ones, where I didn’t really play great, to playing a lot better today.”

Norrie’s mellow approach to the game is not one shared by Rune, who has quickly acquired a reputation as something of a firebrand since he first impacted on the public consciousness in New York last year by taking a set off Novak Djokovic in the opening round. The 19-year-old was involved in an unseemly spat with Casper Ruud at the French Open, and here he once again took aim at one of the tour’s more mild-mannered competitors, complaining that Norrie was deliberately catching his ball toss in order to buy time.

“So you don’t think he does it on purpose?” Rune demanded of Timo Janzen, the chair umpire, after Norrie battled through a nine-minute service game to seal a two-set lead. Norrie was within the 25-second time limit, however, and Rune enjoyed no more success with his remonstrations than he did with his efforts to hit through an opponent whose game is founded on patience and stamina.

“Holger’s not easy, he can go through patches where he’s playing pretty passively and then he goes through and hits very aggressively, so you have to be ready for anything,” Norrie told Amazon Prime analyst Greg Rusedski at courtside. “For me, I think I stayed a lot calmer than he did throughout the big moments in the match.

“My goal today was to get to two hours and then we start the match from there. Literally, I when it hit two hours, I broke to go 2-1 in the third and I pointed to Facu [Lagones, his coach], and I was like, ‘Yeah, all right, now the match starts.’ Then he seemed to die a lot, I don’t know what was going on with him.”

Norrie will face Andrey Rublev for a place in the quarter-finals after the Russian ninth seed came through a dramatic five-setter against Denis Shapovalov. Rublev, who let slip three match points at 5-4 in the decider, eventually prevailed 6-4, 2-6, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 7-6 (10-7) in four hours and 10 minutes.

Dan Evans was unable to join Norrie in the last 16 after losing a desperately close tussle with former champion Marin Cilic. Evans held three set points in the opener and fended off a match point with a brilliant running backhand at 5-4 in the fourth, but his hopes of forcing a decider were dashed as a poor final service game consigned him to a 7-6 (13-11), 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, 7-5 defeat.

In the night session, Rafael Nadal found his best form so far to defeat Richard Gasquet 6-0, 6-1, 7-5. It was an 18th straight win against the Frenchman for Nadal, who had dropped the opening set in the each of the previous two rounds. He will face Frances Tiafoe in round four after the American, seeded 22nd, came through 7-6 (9-7), 6-4, 6-4 against Diego Schwartzman. 

“He’s a player who plays with a lot of passion, a lot of energy,” said Nadal of Tiafoe. “He’s very quick. He can play very aggressive. I mean, he’s a player that I am not going to win [against] if I am not playing well. I hope to make that happen.”

Carlos Alcaraz, the third seed, remained on course for a projected semi-final showdown against Nadal with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 win over Jenson Brooksby of the US.

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Nothing liberates a player quite like winning from match point down, which is why so many go on to win tournaments after surviving a brush with defeat, swinging with abandon as they make the most of what feels like a free hit. 

This year alone, Jelena Ostapenko, Leylah Fernandez and Caroline Garcia have all won titles after saving a match point at some stage, and Petra Kvitova could become the next addition to that list after battling past former champion Madison Keys in Cincinnati to reach her second final in eight weeks. 

Kvitova came within a point of defeat in a gruelling win over Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann in the opening round, and the 28th-ranked Czech was once again required to draw on her powers of recovery as she fought back from a set down to claim an emotional win over the home favourite. 

“It’s like a second chance, or that you were almost gone and now you are still here, and playing in the draw,” said Kvitova following her 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 6-3 victory. “I’m glad that this happened to me. I don’t think that it’s ever happened to me, so that’s nice, to have this experience even at my age.

“It’s a big boost for me, for sure, after the season that I had. I know I won Eastbourne [in June], but it was on the grass, my favourite grass. It was pretty fast, faster than Wimbledon.

“So I’m really glad for it. The first round was really tight, down from the match points. I think always these matches are important for the tournament, for the confidence as well.”

The former Wimbledon champion, who has rarely prospered in the heat and humidity of a Cincinnati summer, will be equally encouraged by further evidence of the resilience she showed against Teichmann. Keys has been in blistering form this week, beating world No 1 Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina, the Wimbledon champion, in successive rounds, and the American’s burgeoning confidence was evident as she raced into an early lead.

Kvitova was twice required to stave off points for a double break that would have left her trailing 4-1 in the first set. She worked hard to level at 3-3, and later went on to recover from 5-2 down in the first-set tiebreak, but a blazing off-backhand winner from Keys brought up a second set point from which the Czech, for once, was unable to recover. 

Things are rarely straightforward between two of the finest exponents of first-strike tennis in the women’s game, however, and so it proved again as Kvitova built on early breaks in each of the next two sets to claim her fifth win in nine meetings with Keys. 

“I came back somehow, and the tiebreak was just very, very close,” said Kvitova. “We always have battles, like three sets.

“I just stayed there and tried to play until the end of every point. 

“It was an incredible battle.”

Kvitova will face another battle in Sunday’s final, where Garcia awaits. The Frenchwoman’s renascent form continued with a rain-interrupted 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 victory over Aryna Sabalenka. 

Garcia, who becomes the first woman ever to reach a WTA 1000 final after coming through qualifying, raced through the opening set before the first downpour of the afternoon forced a suspension of play. Her level dipped after the delay, but she recovered her rhythm at the start of the decider and ensured there was no repeat when the players were once again forced off at 3-1 in the decider. 

With 26 wins since the start of June, including titles on grass and clay, the former world No 4 has been the summer’s form player.

“No one expected it, that’s for sure,” said Garcia. “It’s a long way to come from qualies.”

In the men’s draw, Borna Coric defeated ninth seed Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-4 to reach his first ATP Masters final since 2018. The Croatian, a former world No 12, is currently ranked 152 after undergoing shoulder surgery last year, but could break the top 30 next week should he follow up his win over Norrie, who looked uncharacteristically fatigued after his epic win over Carlos Alcaraz the previous evening.

If Coric is to put a title-winning seal on a week that has already brought wins over Rafael Nadal and Felix Auger-Aliassime, he will need to find a way past Stefanos Tsitsipas, who came through 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-3 against Daniil Medvedev, the world No 1. 

Tsitsipas, who saved a set point in the opener, had won only two of his previous nine meetings with Medvedev, and looked to be in trouble again when he fell 5-0 behind in the second set. But the Greek fourth seed recovered to avoid the whitewash and held on determinedly – and at times brilliantly – in the decider after Medvedev, distracted by fireworks outside the stadium, hit four double faults to concede a break in the sixth game. 

“He got really tight, I think, with the first serves, wasn’t putting a lot of first serves in, gave me a double fault in the last few games of the third set,” said Tsitsipas. “I felt like the ball wasn’t really flying off his racquet. 

“I felt like he was trying too hard, and that’s when I knew that I pushed him there, and it was something that I did over many consecutive rallies, a lot of physical effort. I knew that was my opportunity to go and strike.”

Tsitsipas anticipates a battle in Sunday’s final, which will be his first in Cincinnati.

“I’m prepared for it,” he said. “I know it’s not an easy task playing against him. He’s coming back from an injury, he’s playing great tennis, and he’s going to work very hard for it.”  

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Flat and disengaged at the outset, Djokovic raised home hopes by falling behind, before raising home hackles at the death by blowing a sarcastic kiss towards a spectator who cried out as he prepared to serve on match point. With his 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 victory complete, a chorus of derision threatened to drown out the crowd’s applause. That only drove Djokovic, never one to back down from a fight, to celebrate wildly, punching the air and emitting a hearty roar as he looked up to his box.

“I was blowing kisses to somebody that that was cheering for me,” he said later with a Machiavellian smirk. 

The jeers returned during the Serb’s on-court interview, although this time the object of the Centre Court crowd’s opprobrium was not the six-time champion but Kyrgios, the controversial Australian he will face on Sunday following Rafael Nadal’s withdrawal with a torn abdominal muscle. 

“One thing is for sure,” said Djokovic with a sardonic smile, “there’s going to be a lot of fireworks, emotionally, from both [of us].”

Whether Djokovic will still be smiling in two days’ time remains to be seen. He has lost both his previous meetings with Kyrgios in straight sets, although neither match came at a grand slam, where the five-set format affords more time to analyse and problem-solve in the manner he did against Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals. 

Against Norrie, Djokovic offered a timely reminder of his ability to make karma out of a crisis, ruthlessly exploiting a momentary lapse of focus by his opponent to turn the tables on the 26-year-old. Broken three times in the opening set, Djokovic found fresh impetus in the second, returning from a bathroom break to concede just three points on his delivery as he levelled at a set apiece. He was helped on his way by an absolute howler from Norrie, who stabbed a simple backhand volley wide early in the eighth game with the court at his mercy. 

“Just a little bit of execution, maybe lack of focus in that moment, and then he raised his game,” said Norrie. “I think he served unbelievably well.”

Djokovic required no further invitation, prising an error to break before serving out the set. He broke again at the start of the third, and from that point he did not relinquish control again until his temper got the better of him with the match won.

“It’s never pleasant to have the whole stadium cheering for your opponent,” said Djokovic. “Of course, it’s something that I expected coming into the match. It was logical for that to happen, you know, because he’s the hometown hero and they wanted him to win. I knew what kind of environment I’m going into. 

“But I felt like I was maintaining my focus pretty well, considering. I was a set down and wasn’t playing well, feeling well, but then somehow I managed to turn the match around. You could see today on the court that he dropped the focus a little bit a few times, and that’s where I stepped in and really started to control the pace of the match and exchanges from the baseline.”

It has nonetheless been a run of note from Norrie, who had not previously advanced beyond the third round of a slam. Djokovic praised the younger man’s attention to detail, noting with a mixture of amusement and approval that Norrie brought his own weighing scales with him to the All England Club in order to ensure he hadn’t lost fluids following practice. It was, said Djokovic, the kind of thing he would do himself.

“It was a good experience, obviously, to play him, especially the level he brings here at Wimbledon,” said Norrie. “It gives me a lot of confidence, but it doesn’t mean anything. It’s nice to do it and experience it, I loved every moment of it. But I think I need to keep working hard. I’ve still got a lot of things I can improve on my game.”

Djokovic will now face Kyrgios in a bid to win his 21st grand slam title, an achievement that would pull him ahead of Roger Federer and leave him one behind Nadal on the all-time leaderboard. He is under no illusions about the difficulty of the task he faces against Kyrgios.

“The experience that I have at this level and playing in finals, against someone that has never played a grand slam final, could be slightly in my favour,” said Djokovic. “But at the same time, knowing who he is and how he goes about his tennis, and his attitude on the court, he doesn’t seem to be falling under pressure much. He just plays lights out every time he steps on the court, just a lot of power in his game, so I’m sure he’s going to go for it.”

It promises to be quite a ride.

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It is 17 years since Nadal dismantled his compatriot Albert Montañés in 52 minutes to become, at 18, the youngest champion in the Mexican Open’s history. After defeating Britain’s Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday to claim his fourth title at the event in Acapulco, he is also its oldest. Age, it would seem, is no barrier.

The 15th consecutive win of Nadal’s unbeaten season was underpinned by the same signature blend of power, variety and tenacity that characterised the four-time champion’s performances throughout a week in which he once again rolled through the draw without dropping a set – just as he did at the same venue two years ago. He has now won each of the three events he has entered this year, with his latest success following a historic 21st grand slam at last month’s Australian Open and victory at the Melbourne Summer Set. His 91st title, achieved after a notable semi-final victory over new world No 1 Daniil Medvedev, moves him back up to fourth in the rankings. At 35, the numbers continue to stack up for Nadal.

“It’s truly unbelievable to start the year like this,” said Nadal, whose outstanding form is all the more remarkable given that he is returning from an incurable foot problem that decimated the second half of his season last year. “A month and a half ago, no one would have believed this.

“I went through some very difficult moments during the match that I was able to save, and then I took advantage when I had the chances.” 

Norrie, in confident mood after winning the third ATP title of his career in Delray Beach last weekend, began the contest by boldly trading forehands with his feted opponent, and came within a snatched backhand volley of earning an early break point. Instead, it was Nadal who seized the initiative. A trio of forehand errors in the fifth game proved costly for Norrie, allowing Nadal to claim the first break with a sweeping forehand pass. From there, Norrie had the unenviable task of trying to keep pace with one of the game’s great frontrunners. 

“Rafa doesn’t give you any free points and, if you give him one or two, he takes advantage,” said Norrie. “It is impressive to see how he still does it.”

The 12th-ranked Norrie did at least stall Nadal’s progress temporarily after falling behind at the start of the second set, some doggedly determined play from the baseline breaking a sequence of 16 break points saved by Nadal over the previous two rounds. But a run of four successive games propelled Nadal to a 5-2 lead, and although Norrie reclaimed a break courtesy of some loose play from the Spaniard as he served for the title, the respite proved temporary. 

At 5-4, Nadal flicked backed a shoelace-high pass from Norrie with a wand-like flourish of the racket, punching away a volley to bring up two match points. He now stands just three behind third-placed Ivan Lendl on the list of players with the most titles in the open era; Lendl has 94, followed by Roger Federer on 103 and Jimmy Connors with 109. It is testament to his enduring excellence, but the grounded Spaniard is not about to get carried away.

“At the end of the day, I’ve always said that this kind of record needs to be measured once your career is over,” said Nadal. “Today the most important thing is that I have won a prestigious tournament.”

It is unlikely to be the last. 

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While the occasion inevitably lacked the seismic magnitude of Nadal’s win in Melbourne, it was not without significance for either player. For Medvedev, who arrived in Acapulco assuming he would need to do “something special” to claim the top ranking from Novak Djokovic – only to have it handed to him by the Serb’s shock defeat to Jiri Vesely in Dubai – victory would have reinforced his status as the new alpha male of the tour.

Nadal’s success in denying the Russian that validation, meanwhile, offered further evidence of the respite he has found from the foot problem that threatened to end his career. The determined manner in which the Spaniard went about his work, commanding the early stages of the contest before saving 11 break points in the second set with a brilliant display of belligerence, augurs well for the months ahead. It is extraordinary to think that last September, when Medvedev triumphed over Novak Djokovic in the US Open final, Nadal was on crutches. Barely five months later, he has made the best start to a season of his storied career. 

“As you know, I have better days and worse days. For me the most important thing, whether it hurts or not, is that I can play without limitations, and that’s what I couldn’t do last year – and I feared,” said the fourth-seeded Nadal, who will face Britain’s Cameron Norrie in the final.

“I feel liberated, and in games that I’ve played the foot hasn’t been a problem. I enjoy every day that the foot allows me to play freely.”

Nadal certainly played freely here, securing an early break in both sets as he asserted his authority from the back of the court, forcing Medvedev to vary his approach with drop shots and repeated forays to the net, much as he had in the latter stages of his defeat at Melbourne Park. Drawn out of his natural baseline rhythm and struggling to make an impression on his second serve, behind which he won an uncharacteristically meagre six out of 24 points, the Russian would finish the match with 26 unforced errors. 

“I don’t think I played great today, generally my level was not good enough to compete against a player like Nadal,” said Medvedev, 26. “Too many mistakes, and the score says it.”

What the scoreline does not say, however, is that Medvedev refused to go quietly – or quickly. For all the Russian’s travails, the contest spanned two hours in energy-sapping humidity and, but for Nadal’s extraordinary second-set obduracy, it might have rolled on considerably longer. 

Having won the opener without facing a single break point, Nadal was forced to save four in the fourth game of the second, conjuring a blistering forehand winner, an ace, a winning volley and a vicious wrong-footing forehand to keep his nose in front. More challenges were to follow in his next service game, as Medvedev combined some fine play off the ground with a series of artfully executed drop shots to fashion a further seven break points. Again, Nadal was equal to the task, volleying courageously and finding some exquisite touch shots of his own to survive a game that lasted almost 20 minutes. 

“I played some amazing points on the break points,” said Nadal, 35, who has now won five of his six meetings with Medvedev.

“The second set was very emotional. Daniil was playing very aggressive – drop shots, winners. It was a very difficult set. I feel lucky to win that set because he had a lot of chances.”

Norrie, seeded sixth, defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4 to reach his second successive final following his success at the Delray Beach Open last week. 

“I wasn’t really feeling well in the start of the match. I had some nerves, but my serve really kept me in there,” said Norrie, who has lost all three of his previous meetings with Nadal in straight sets. “I was able to dictate play and get into his backhand while defending my forehand.”

Nadal said he anticipated a tough match against Norrie, the world No 12, who is on an eight-match winning streak.

“His level of tennis is huge,” said Nadal, a three-time champion in Acapulco. “He improved a lot at the beginning of last year, and this year he continues. It’s going to be a big challenge, but we are in the final of a 500 here in Acapulco, so you can’t expect an easy opponent.”

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Yet, as Great Britain have themselves demonstrated often enough in recent years, rankings and records tend to count for little in the Davis Cup. A day that began in auspicious style for Smith’s men was to end in frustration as the German pairing of Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz saw off Salisbury and Skupski 7-6 (12-10), 7-6 (7-5) in the decisive doubles rubber, surviving four set points in the opener and recovering from 0-5 down in the second-set tiebreak. 

Evans had earlier put the British within touching distance of a semi-final place with a 6-2, 6-1 demolition of Peter Gojowczyk, a late replacement for Dominik Koepfer, but Norrie was unable to find a way past an inspired Jan-Lennard Struff, slipping to a 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-2 defeat.

“I was really disappointed with my level,” said Norrie, who served for the opening set at 6-5 and held two set points at 6-4 in the tiebreak. “I didn’t serve as well as I did in the previous matches. He played some good tennis in some big moments, especially in the third. The first set should definitely have been mine. I served for the first. Couple of loose points. I had a couple of set points, and with chances in the points as well. It could have gone differently. I think I had a good attitude to turn it around and then a chance early in the third, but he played very aggressive in the third set and managed to return well and then serve well when he needed to in the third.”

It was the third successive match in which Krawietz and Puetz have come through in the crunch for Germany in Innsbruck, and Salisbury was blunt in his assessment of a defeat that means Britain will have to negotiate a qualifying tie in March to reach the 2022 finals.

“They played well at the end of the second-set tiebreak, but we didn’t,” said Salisbury, who partnered Rajeev Ram to the US Open title in September and also won the Australian Open alongside the American last year. “I mean, we’re 5-0 up, we should win the tiebreak, simple as that.  They came up with some good shots, but we missed some. I had two points on serve, played two bad points. We lost seven points in a row. There is no team in the world that we should … do that [against]. We tried our best, but it just wasn’t good enough. Obviously we are gutted [about] how it turned out.”

Germany, who advanced to the semi-finals for the first time since 2007, will now travel to Madrid, where they will face either the Russian Tennis Federation or Sweden for a place in Sunday’s final.

“In Madrid there are different conditions,” said Struff. “I think we have now three days to prepare. I mean, it’s a bit more altitude, so the ball will be flying a bit more. The ball was bouncing here pretty high, so let’s see if it’s bouncing more there. It’s very nice to fly with the team. We all said we want to go to Madrid, and reached that aim. Now it’s time to set a new aim to win the semi-finals.”

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