Top favorite Novak Djokovic surprisingly suffered his first defeat at the ATP Finals in Turin and has to worry about his twelfth place in the semi-finals at the end of the tennis season.
The world number one and six-time finals winner from Serbia lost to Jannik Sinner (Italy) on Tuesday evening 5:7, 7:6 (7:5), 6:7 (2:7) and is now in his last group game against the Polish newcomer Hubert Hurkacz under pressure.
After his second victory in Turin and his first success in the fourth duel with Djokovic, Sinner has the semi-finals close in sight.
In the final match against Boris Becker’s protégé Holger Rune (Denmark), the South Tyrolean can make his first place in the top four at the season finale.
Before Djokovic’s defeat, Rune had done short-time work in Turin. In front of Becker, who then also carefully studied Rune’s next opponent Sinner against Djokovic, the 20-year-old Dane benefited from the abandonment of the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, who had a back injury. After just 17 minutes the game was over with the score 2-1 for Rune.
ATP Finals already over for Tsitsipas
Tsitsipas, who lost his first game against Sinner 4:6, 4:6, later announced his withdrawal from the tournament. “I did my best to get fit for the match. But it wasn’t enough,” said the 2019 Finals winner.
For Tsitsipas, Hurkacz will contest the final of the group; Hurkacz can no longer make it to the semi-finals. The two best placed teams from each of the two groups of four qualify for the semi-finals.
Rune’s thoughts were with his opponent at the abrupt end of the game. “It was very unfortunate,” he said: “We could all see in his first service game that something was wrong. I wish him all the best.” In 2021, Tsitsipas had to give up due to injury at the end of the season’s eight best teams.
Olympic champion Alexander Zverev, who won the tournament in 2018 and 2021, is in demand again after his opening win against Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz (Spain) on Wednesday evening (9 p.m./all Sky). The Hamburger will then face Daniil Medvedev for the sixth time this year, and he was only able to defeat the Russian once.