Djokovic overcomes “problems” and prepares the Sinner final

World number four Novak Djokovic will face Jannik Sinner in the final of the Shanghai Masters on Sunday as he looks to win his 100th ATP title.

The Serb overcame problems with his hip and beat the American Taylor Fritz 6:4, 7:6 (8:6) in China, setting up a final with the Italian Sinner, who won 6:0 at the end of the year -Victory against Tomas Machac secured number one in the world rankings. 4 7-5 in the other semifinal.

The 37-year-old Djokovic mastered the first set with flying colors and showed his best tennis of the season.

But the 24-time Grand Slam champion's dominance faded in the second set as he struggled with a hip problem.

Fritz saved three break points in the fifth game of the second set and took the lead 3-2.

Djokovic, who was unable to take part in this year's French Open because of a knee injury, became increasingly annoyed by the hip problem and took a medical break with Fritz leading 6-5.

The American saw his chance to recover, but Djokovic held serve and took the set to a tiebreak.

World number seven Fritz had a 6-5 lead when serving in the tie-break, but lost both subsequent points, allowing Djokovic to play out the game.

“I had some physical problems here on the court today, but I was able to overcome them,” said Djokovic.

“It always drains me, especially towards the end of the tournament, and at this stage of my career I am doing my best to recover.”

Sinner made easy work of number 30 seeded Czech Machac and became the first Italian to reach the final in Shanghai.

The 23-year-old made just nine unforced errors as he secured his 64th win of the year, cementing his status as world number one at the end of the year.

“It’s amazing,” Sinner said. “This is what you dream about when you’re young.”

Sunday's final will be the eighth time Djokovic has faced Sinner, having beaten the Italian four out of seven times.