There is a popular saying that the ATP Finals come with all the drama and amusement. Just when fans have been relishing to see Novak Djokovic back on the court, he returned with a bang to win the Rolex Paris Masters, which was his 40th ATP Masters 1000 and 97th tour-level title of his career.
At the ATP finals in Turin, the Serbian defeated Holger Rune in the opening group match to cement his place at the top of the world ranking for a record eighth time. Also, Djokovic stomped on a racket, made the ball girl happy and had a ritual autograph on a fan chest.
Djokovic signs fan’s chest
After a victory that took Novak Djokovic 3 hours against familiar Dane Holger Rune, the Serbian legend was asked to sign the ritual autographs and one of those went on a fan’s chest. Other fans who were waiting for Djokovic’s autograph relish the style in which the fan took the perfect tattoo template.
Djokovic’s first victory of the season came at the Adelaide ATP 500 in January, and he now owns a record 52-5 following his opening victory in the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin and a 14-3 record vs. the Top 10.
“It means a lot,” said Djokovic, ensuring he will end the year as World No. 1. “You could see there were a lot of emotions on the court. I could feel it. I was very eager to win tonight’s match, get that monkey off my back. I won Paris, which put me in a much better position rankings-wise, and I knew coming into Turin I only needed to win one match. A big goal is achieved, everything else now is a bonus.”
Novak Djokovic’s path to reaching another milestone has already become straight and he looks likely to defend the Nitto ATP Finals title in the coming days after gaining strong points against debutant Holger Rune. Although Rune showed plenty of quality inside the Pala Alpitour arena, there was no chance for him to win against a coordinated Djokovic.
Djokovic makes young ball girl’s day
Before Novak Djokovic’s win against Holger Rune, he shared a sweet moment with a young ballgirl before his first match at the ATP Finals. The Serbian legend interacted with her, listening patiently. Fans hailed Djokovic for his love for kids and amazing personality.
After the match, Djokovic explained why Rune is one of his toughest tests in the tennis world today. “It’s like looking at myself in the mirror. He is so good all over the pitch. He has some amazing escapes at the net,” said Djokovic. “He makes big serve, he makes kick serve. He is dynamic. He lives off the energy of the audience. He has everything in his game.”
“We all know that he has a great future ahead of him. He wants to win slams and he is definitely one of those who has the skills to do so. Hopefully, we can have more of this kind of match.” But despite the compliment, Rune doesn’t think they share many similarities.
“No. I mean, of course, I take the compliment that he’s saying we play similarly,” said Rune in response to Djokovic’s classy comments. “I don’t think so, but that’s my opinion. It’s good to be comparing with him. He’s one of the greatest that we ever had in the game.”
Holger Rune would hope to defeat Jannik Sinner and Stefanos Tsitispas in the other matches for Group Green in order to get to the next round but that may come at a hard cost because Sinner and Tsitsipas are in better form.
