A year after his semifinals against Alexander Zverev, the Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic is reaching for the sixth title and a record bonus at the ATP finals. In the semi-finals, the 35-year-old prevailed in Turin despite problems 7: 6 (7: 5), 7: 6 (8: 6) against the American Taylor Fritz and reached the final of the ATP finals for the eighth time.
There he meets Casper Ruud as a favorite on Sunday (2nd match after 4 p.m. / Sky). The Norwegian world number four dominated the second semi-final against the Russian tennis pro Andrei Rublev and ended the duel with a 6:2, 6:4 win. Ruud is in the final of the ATP Finals for the first time.
Tournament victory brings record bonus
With his sixth triumph at the end of the season, Djokovic can draw level with the record holder Roger Federer from Switzerland, who has since retired. Since he was also undefeated in the preliminary round of this year’s tournament, if he were successful he would receive the ATP Tour record bounty of $4.74 million. In the semi-finals, the Serb didn’t seem untouchable, but in the end he won the decisive points.
Although the 21-time Grand Slam tournament winner initially took a 3-2 lead with a break, he didn’t play his best tennis and only won the first set in the tie-break. In the second round, the tournament favorite fell behind and only managed to break at 5:5 when Fritz served to equalize the set. Fritz slipped into the field as a replacement for the injured Spanish world number one Carlos Alcaraz. Last year, Zverev celebrated tournament victory at the ATP Finals, this time the Hamburger is missing due to his long injury break.