In the hands of Jannick Sinner. Novak Djokovic no longer depends on himself to be in the semifinals of the ATP Finals. Yes, he beat Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz 7-6 (1) and 4-6, 6-1. Yes, the Serbian achieved his second victory in the competition. But by doing it in three sets, everything other than a victory tonight for the Italian, already qualified, against the Dane Rune leaves him out of the tournament.
The Serbian has no choice but to wait for the outcome of that match. Sinner, Djokovic’s executioner on Tuesday, is only playing for first or second. That is sportingly but economically a good pinch is on the table. Not only for the match but for the fact that if a player is able to win the tournament with a total of victories, he will pocket the largest prize in the history of tennis (4.8 million dollars). Furthermore, he plays in Turin in front of his fans and that is always an incentive. On the contrary, being left out of Nole always means eliminating a main adversary, the most important a priori. The shadow of the “biscotto” hung over Turin. If Rune wins Djokovic is out in a surprising way.
At that point Djokovic could only sit and wait. On the track he had already obtained a hard-fought victory that could have been of no use. He did not have an easy time against a Hurkacz who had nothing to do for qualifying purposes since he entered the tournament after Tsitsipas’ withdrawal and with only one game left to play.
Even so, the Pole sold his defeat dearly and became strong in service. Meanwhile, Djokovic started the match at a slow pace and from time to time making gestures of pain. Of course, at 5-6 he concentrated as only he knows how and linked ten points to go 6-0 in the tiebreaker. He finished the tie break (7-1) without any problem
In the second set everything went wrong for Nole. He received a break in the sixth game from which he did not recover. He was able to return the break in the eighth game but the Pole saved two break points with a pair of aces.
In the last round Djokovic took advantage of Hurkacz’s mistakes to take the lead and win the match. Good victory if Sinner wins or useless if Rune wins.
