Jannik Sinner has become the first player in six years to win three Masters 1000 titles within the same season after beating Novak Djokovic to win the Shanghai Masters on Sunday.
The world No.1 was tested early on before powering his way to a 7-6(4), 6-3, win over the 24-time Grand Slam champion who has previously won the Shanghai trophy on four occasions. Sinner has now beaten Djokovic in four out of their last five matches and levels their head-to-head at 4-4. At the age of 23 years and one month, he is the youngest player to have won the tournament.
“It was a very tough match,” Sinner said afterwards.
“Playing against Novak, it’s one of the toughest challenges we have, and I’m very happy with how I handled the situation.
“He was serving great. The first set I really couldn’t find a way to to break him.
“Then I played a very good breaker, which gave me the confidence to start off well in the second set.
“I’m very happy about my performance throughout this whole tournament, it is a very special one.”
In their eighth tour-level meeting, there was little to separate the two tennis titans during the opening set with no break points occuring during the first 12 games played. Djokovic had a half chance to take the opener when leading 5-4 with a 30-0 lead on the Sinner serve before the top seed won four points in a row to draw level. Then in the tiebreaker, Sinner went off guns blazing by winning four points in a row before earning a trio of set points after Djokovic hit a volley into the net. He converted his second with a serve out wide that the Serbian returned out.
Sinner’s next blow took place in the fourth game of the second set after he blasted a clean forehand winner to finally break the Djokovic serve for a 3-1 lead. Closing in on victory, he continued to dictate play with the help of some mistakes from his opponent, especially on the backhand side. A winning serve and volley rewarded Sinner with his first match point, which he converted with a blistering ace.
“It’s tough to tell you a secret because he doesn’t have any weaknesses,” Sinner replied when asked about his recent winning record against Djokovic.
“You just have to try to use the really small amount chances he gives you but there are not so many throughout the whole the whole match.”
“I’m just trying to believe in every moment and that’s it.
“He is a legend of our sport. He’s a very, very tough to play against.”
The triumph has prevented Djokovic from becoming the third player in history to win a 100th ATP title. If he had won, he would have overtaken Roger Federer to become the most successful ATP hard-court player in the Open Era with 72 trophies. So far this season, Djokovic has only won one event which was the Olympic title in Paris.
“I’ve had a lot of success on Chinese soil in my career and I haven’t played in China for five years. So I missed it and I am really glad that I came this year.” Said Djokovic.
“I think I played some really good tennis. Congratulations to Jannik, he was just too good today, too strong, too fast and well done.”
Sinner has won three Masters titles so far this year which is the most achieved within the same season since Rafael Nadal in 2018, who also won three. Overall, he has won 65 matches and seven titles since the start of January.
