Novak Djokovic won his third straight match at the ATP finals on Thursday, finishing group play undefeated for the fourth time in the past five years.
The second-ranked Serb, who still has a chance to finish the season as the No. 1-ranked player, beat David Goffin 6-1, 6-2 at the O2 Arena.
Goffin was making his debut at the season-ending tournament, filling in for the injured Gael Monfils against Djokovic.
The 11th-ranked Belgian didn't get much chance, earning only one break point — and that in the final game of the match. Djokovic, meanwhile, converted four of his six break points, two in each set.
Djokovic had already qualified for the semifinals after winning his opening two matches. The second semifinal spot from the group will be decided later Thursday when Milos Raonic faces Dominic Thiem. The winner will advance. Djokovic is a five-time champion at the tournament, which is for the top-eight players in the world. He has won 21 of his last 22 matches at the O2 since 2012, including four straight titles.
He also won the title in 2008, when the tournament was in Shanghai, so another victory on Sunday will give him a record-tying six championships — the same as Roger Federer.
Djokovic opened the match with two double-faults, but he didn't do much wrong after that. He ended up winning 83 percent of the points on his first serve, even with four double-faults in the first set.
Murray wins
Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori tend to linger when they get together. Their latest matchup set a record.
Murray survived the longest three-set match in ATP Finals history when he prevailed against Nishikori 6-7 (9), 6-4, 6-4 on Wednesday.
They needed 3 hours, 20 minutes, to separate themselves. The first set alone took 85 minutes.
Murray, 2-0 in his group, can clinch a semifinal berth for the first time in four years with a win over U.S. Open champion Stan Wawrinka on Friday.
Wawrinka eliminated Marin Cilic from contention 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3) in an almost two-hour-long late match. losing to No 5-ranked Nishikori would have hurt Murray's chances of holding off Novak Djokovic to keep the No 1 ranking.
Murray relieved Djokovic of the top ranking last week, and Murray believed it would be a fitting end to the year to play the Serb for the ranking and ATP Finals title on Sunday in the final.