At age 35, the 8e Mondial ends its season in style. The Serbian Novak Djokovic did not tremble on Sunday November 20 and won the Masters for the sixth time by beating Casper Ruud 7-5, 6-3. He is the oldest player to win the Masters. He also equaled Roger Federer’s title record in this tournament bringing together the eight best players of the season and pocketed the biggest prize ever offered by the ATP in a tournament: 4.74 million dollars (4.58 million euros). euros). It took him seven years, since his last victory at the Masters in 2015, to match Federer.
Djokovic started the match well by getting two break points on his opponent’s first serve. But the Norwegian held and at 2-1, the Serb ostensibly began to wince, raising fears of a new physical slump, as he had experienced in his two previous games against Medvedev and Fritz.
Impeccable on his serve (not a single break point conceded in the match), Djokovic gradually regained his physique, his game and his clear and voluntary gaze: he obtained a new break point at 4-3, but did not failed to achieve it.
As often, however, he managed to raise his level of play on the important points and when he created a first set point on Ruud’s serve, it was the Norwegian who broke down in the exchange and left the Djoker win the first round.
As Zlatan Ibrahimovic looked on, Djokovic then took control of the match: he scored the first break of the game to lead 3-1 in the second set, playing increasingly superior tennis to Ruud’s.
Quietly, Djokovic came to serve for the match at 5-3 and concluded with an ace.
Season upset for the Serbian
After Wimbledon, this is the second major title of the year for the Serb who missed a significant part of the season (including the Australian Open and the US Open) for his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid- 19. Ranked 8th at ATP during the tournament, the former No. 1 will go up to 5e rank Monday.
For his part, Ruud lost his third grand final of the year, after Roland-Garros and the US Open. But at 23, 2022 will remain the best season of his career so far as he reached 2nd place in the ATP after Flushing Meadows and will be 3rd on Monday.