Those who risk the end of the holy trinity of tennis, the change of third, will have to wait.
(The holy trinity of tennis: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer).
If Rafael Nadal (37) insists on returning to the scene – he plans to do so at the beginning of 2024, that is what he has been saying in recent days –, Novak Djokovic (36) is a legend determined to last forever. He doesn’t give anything away, he doesn’t leave anything for anyone, he cares little where he plays, or in front of whom.
If he faces Carlos Alcaraz (20), the pup who claims world leadership, then Djokovic cuts his wings (just look at the match the day before, on Saturday, the semi-final at the Pala Alpitour).
If he plays in Italy and against Jannik Sinner (22), an Italian, he crushes it.
The Turin public is crazy about Sinner, he is their Italian, the first transalpine in a final of the Nitto ATP Finals, but Djokovic, in hostile territory, comes out on top. He does it from the first point, from the start of the final: Djokovic’s record of Grand Slams (24, as many as Margaret Court) is no longer enough. He also wants the record for masters cups (he had six until yesterday, now he has seven, one more than Roger Federer had collected).
In the Djokovic cyclone, Sinner is absorbed, shaken and thrown from the heights. There will be no mercy this time: Djokovic is not going to let him breathe, he is going to prevent him from entering the match, because he does not want a repeat of what had happened in the group stage, days ago, when it was Sinner who It shook him and made him doubt everything.
Right now, Djokovic is a prancing genius, and be careful with the statement: fury does not enervate him, but rather elevates him. Just as the match starts, Djokovic takes flight.
Djokovic hits two aces in his first service game, has four in the second, and also throws lobs and winning points at 160 km/h, and Sinner maintains the hieratic gesture, he is the ice man.
Although it melts.
Sinner melts at 18 minutes, when the Serbian of the 24 Grand Slams, the tennis player with the most weeks in the world leadership in the history of tennis, breaks his serve, and then continues accelerating and does not grant him a single break option , and closes the first round in just 38 minutes, with seven aces in his statistic (compared to Sinner’s three), many of them pointing to the T, how desperate, poor Sinner and poor Italian fans, who are deflating.
Djokovic’s children (Stefan, nine years old, Tara, six) attend their father’s exhibition, a father who has always dreamed of this, of showing off in front of his little ones.
“I have always wanted to perform in front of them, to make them participate in what is happening to us,” confesses the Serbian, who now bites Sinner, has sunk his teeth into the prey and is not going to let go: just as the second set begins , breaks the Italian’s service, breaks him to love, and instantly signs three more aces (he will add thirteen at the end of the match), he even strings together ten consecutive points, and Sinner assumes his destiny.
Maybe one day I will be a tennis master.
But so far, Djokovic has already been one seven times.
