Novak Djokovic won a record seventh ATP Finals title with a dominant victory over Jannik Sinner to mark another milestone in his memorable season.
The 36-year-old Serb, who lost to the Italian in the group stage, took revenge with a 6-3 6-3 victory in Turin, Italy.
He has set records in rankings and titles this year and played some of his best tennis against the youngsters – like Sinner – trying to challenge him.
“It’s been one of the best seasons I’ve had in my life, without a doubt,” Djokovic said.
“It’s very special. It’s amazing to be crowned against the hometown hero Jannik this week,” he said in comments to Amazon Prime.
“Tactically I played differently today than I did in the group stage against Jannik. All in all, an amazing week.”
Before the singles final, there was British success in the doubles as Joe Salisbury and his American partner Rajeev Ram retained the title with a straight-set victory over Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos.
Djokovic is ‘stepping it up’ against Sinner
World number one Djokovic had been tied with Roger Federer for six ATP Finals title wins, but it was clear from the start in Sunday’s final that he was hungry take a proper record.
He established control with an early break and dropped just two points on his serve in an almost flawless display to take the opening set.
A break to love in the opening game of the second set sent Djokovic further ahead and made Sinner’s dream of becoming the first Italian champion at the event in front of a raucous home crowd seem impossible.
Sinner’s first break point chances came in the sixth game of the second set when he went 15-40 on the usually unassailable Djokovic serve, but the 24-time Grand Slam champion fended off the threat to quick at forcing his opponent to make mistakes from behind. of the court.
Djokovic had a chance to break double in the following game, but, in a rare moment of fallibility, instead missed a volley just before Sinner held on.
But he got his chance in the next service game in Italy, with Sinner calmly serving the victory with a double fault on Djokovic’s first match point.
It was a far cry from the Italian’s performance against the Serb on Tuesday, when a three-set victory ended Djokovic’s 19-match winning streak.
But this was also a different Djokovic from then, with the Serb building on his superb performance against world number two Carlos Alcaraz in Saturday’s semi-finals to delivered an outstanding performance supported by him winning a whopping 91% of first serve points. .
“The way Carlos and Jannik have been playing, I had to step up,” said Djokovic, who must now enter the next season as his favorite to dominate. again and strive for more records.
Djokovic hits another milestone in a record-setting year
It’s been a record-breaking year for Djokovic so it seems fitting that his tour season should end with another at an event where he was already the reigning champion .
Sunday’s victory moved him ahead of Federer for titles won at the ATP Finals, while he was confirmed as the year-end world number one for a record eighth time earlier this year competition.
This year he also surpassed Steffi Graf’s record for the most weeks spent at the top of the singles charts, with his number now set to reach 400 as of Monday.
Djokovic won three of the four Grand Slam singles titles this season to surpass Rafael Nadal’s men’s record of 22 and draw level with Australian Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24.
That included a record-extending 10th title at the Australian Open – where he will have a chance in January to become the all-time record holder with a 25th major.
As a result of his victory at the French Open in June he became the only man to win a career Grand Slam – the four major titles – three times.
And this year he also set the record for most Grand Slam final appearances with 36, two more than Chris Evert’s previous mark, and earlier this month he won record-extending seventh Paris Masters trophy for record-extending 40th Masters title.
While his tour season is over, Djokovic’s playing season will continue next week at the Davis Cup finals in Malaga, Spain, where he will lead Serbia into their quarter-final against Great Britain on Thursday – match which you can see on the BBC and follow. with live text commentary on the BBC Sport website.
