No gratitude for Sinner
Djokovic crowns sensational year with record title
November 19, 2023, 8:05 p.m
Novak Djokovic is unstoppable. In the preliminary round of the ATP Finals, the Serb is threatened with elimination, but he only progresses thanks to Jannik Sinner’s help. In the final they both face each other again and the tennis dominator confidently prevails.
With an impressive demonstration of power, Novak Djokovic won the ATP Finals for the seventh time. The 36-year-old Serb won the final in Turin against crowd favorite Jannik Sinner 6:3, 6:3 and is now the sole record winner in the annual final of the eight best tennis professionals. He has now achieved one more victory than Roger Federer from Switzerland. The best German at the top-class event is Boris Becker with three titles. Alexander Zverev, who missed the semi-finals this year despite two wins in the preliminary round, follows with his triumphs from 2018 and 2021.
The world number one converted his first match point after 1:43 hours, crowning a sensational season with three Grand Slam titles in Melbourne, Paris and New York. Only at Wimbledon did Djokovic have to admit defeat to the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in an epic five-set match in the final. After his victory, Djokovic hugged his two children and celebrated. “One of the best seasons I’ve played in my life. It’s something very special, I’m very proud of my performance.”
Djokovic ends the first set in a hurry
Sinner won in three sets against Djokovic in the group phase on Tuesday in a high-class match that lasted more than three hours. Djokovic only made it through the preliminary round because the Italian had also won against the young Danish star Holger Rune at the end of the group phase. But there was no sign of gratitude in the finale. Quite the opposite: The record Grand Slam champion gave Sinner, who was previously unbeaten in this tournament, a lesson. Powerful, dominant, fully concentrated – at times you could almost see a class difference between Djokovic and Sinner.
He managed three of his service games in the first set to zero, hit seven strong aces – and offered a lot of resistance to Sinner’s service. The result: a quick break with which Djokovic made it 3-1. After just 38 minutes, Djokovic took the first set. Sinner looked desperately at his team. But Djokovic, who had already outclassed Alcaraz in two sets in the semifinals, was simply unstoppable that evening.
In the second set the picture hardly changed at first, Djokovic showed his best tennis. First he took the serve from Sinner without losing any points, then he remained flawless again with his own service. But Sinner fought back, every point he scored sparked loud cheers from the Tifosi. The highlight: game seven, which Sinner secured after 16 minutes and fended off two break points. But Djokovic remained unimpressed.