Jannik Sinner fully deserved win, says Novak Djokovic

TURIN – Novak Djokovic admitted that Jannik Sinner was “more courageous and deserved to win” as his winning streak was halted at 19 matches on Tuesday after losing to the home favourite 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-2) at the ATP Finals in Turin.

The earlier Green Group clash was a non-event as Stefanos Tsitsipas retired injured against Holger Rune, but the evening ticket holders were treated to a tennis match of jaw-dropping quality.

After more than three hours of an absorbing toe-to-toe battle, in which neither player took a backward step, it was world No. 4 Sinner who seized his chance in the deciding set tiebreak to finally crack Djokovic’s resistance.

“I think the main difference is that in the important points, he was going for it, he was more courageous,” Djokovic said.

“He deserved to win because, in important moments, I wasn’t aggressive enough, I wasn’t decisive enough. I gave him the opportunity to take the control over the points.

“You have to just congratulate him. He just played a fantastic match. That’s what I told him at the net.

“I think, in the most important moments, he played his best game and he absolutely deserved to win.”

Sinner, 14 years Djokovic’s junior, wrapped up his first career win against the 24-time Grand Slam champion with a smash – prompting deafening roars from a sell-out crowd, who produced an electrifying atmosphere throughout.

The Italian moves top of the group but is not yet guaranteed a semi-final spot ahead of his final round-robin match against Rune on Thursday when Djokovic, who will end the year as No. 1 for a record-stretching eighth time, plays alternate Hubert Hurkacz.

Sinner, Djokovic and Rune could all still end up with two wins each in a group that is too close to call.

Sinner has enjoyed his best year on Tour and now has 59 match wins in 2023, but none would have given him more pleasure than taking down six-time ATP Finals champion Djokovic.

He will look back on how he moved 2-0 ahead in the deciding tiebreak with a rocket of a forehand return and then gave himself daylight with another forehand winner to make it 3-0.

Once he moved 5-0 ahead, not even Djokovic’s powers of recovery could spare the Serb his first loss since defeat by Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final.

“It’s a sort of process, I feel that I’m more confident in certain moments,” Sinner told Amazon Prime.

“To beat the world No. 1, who has 24 Grand Slams, that means a lot, it’s one of the top (wins).

“In the second-set tiebreak, he played a bit better than me but I think I was brave in the big moments. We were both serving very well, I think we both played really, really well.”

Reigning champion Djokovic did not do much wrong as he battled Sinner and the crowd – regularly jesting with the fans who jeered him throughout the duel.

The smart money would have been on the veteran to complete a 20-match unbeaten streak for the ninth time in his career, but Sinner had other ideas as he chalked up one of the biggest wins of a career that now seems on the verge of lift-off.

The match statistics summed up the quality on offer, with a combined 83 winners and only 25 unforced errors, in a contest lasting 3hr 9min.

Asked about the raucous crowd, Djokovic added: “I expected it, he’s the only Italian here and he’s playing in Italy. There’s a lot of hype and he’s in great form, so it’s normal.”

Meanwhile, Alcaraz, who lost to Alexander Zverev on Monday, got back on track on Wednesday with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Andrey Rublev to revive his hopes in the Red Group. REUTERS, AFP