Novak Djokovic sealed a seventh year-end world number one after a 3-6 6-0 7-6(5) victory over Hubert Hurkacz to reach the final in Paris.
The Serb overtook his idol Pete Sampras with most year-end world number one’s after a three set victory over the Pole.
Despite the achievement it was not a vintage performance from Djokovic in the opening set, as a couple of costly errors gave Hurkacz the break in the eight game.
Hurkacz, who recently sealed the last spot at the Nitto ATP Finals, saved a break point to close out the opening set in 33 minutes.
However in true champions fashion Djokovic responded with a dominant second set display as he won all six games in 29 minutes to level the match at one set all.
As both players created break point opportunities early on, it was Djokovic who would be the more clinical early on racing into a 4-1 lead.
But the world number 10 showed great character to reel off three games in a row to level the set at 4-4.
Djokovic did have a match points saved in the tenth game by Hurkacz but the Pole couldn’t stop the Serb’s irresistible defence for too long as Djokovic took the final set tiebreak 7-5 to clinch a historic victory in the French capital.
It now means the Serb has the most year-end world number one’s, overtaking Pete Sampras, with seven to his name.
After his thrilling semi-final win Djokovic was extremely happy about the achievement, “Just proud and extremely happy,” Djokovic admitted to atptour.com.
“Obviously that was one of the biggest goals and it’s always one of the biggest goals, to try to be No. 1 and end the season as No. 1. To do it for the record seventh time and surpass my childhood idol and role model, Pete, is incredible. Very grateful, very blessed to be in this position.”
ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi described the achievement as monumental, “Finishing the season as No. 1 is a monumental achievement. To do it seven times, in this incredible era of men’s professional tennis, is hard to describe. Novak deserves huge credit and recognition for continuing to redefine excellence in our sport, year after year. Congratulations to him and his team on this outstanding new milestone.”
Djokovic will now look to win a sixth Rolex Paris Masters title and a record-breaking 37th Masters 1000 title when he takes on Alexander Zverev or Daniil Medvedev for the title on Sunday.