It took Jannik Sinner just under 97-minutes to squeeze past Novak Djokovic in the final of the Rolex Shanghai Masters to collect his seventh title of the year in what is proving a very successful season for the Italian.
He was serving great the first set, I couldn’t find a way to break him. I played a really good tie-break which gave me confidence to start off well in the second set. Jannik Sinner
His defeat over the event’s former four-time champion not only rubber stamps his ascendancy to the top of the word rankings, but reinforces him as the end-of-season No.1 which was confirmed when he beat Tomas Machac in the semis.
Sinnek beat Djokovic 7-6(4) 6-3 for his second consecutive Masters title following Cincinnati and his third having won Miami earlier in the season. It was also his 65th win of the season!
Much was expected of the match between the new maestro and the player who has done it and more during a sensational career and, in the first set, the two locked horns with neither relinquishing their serve until the inevitable tiebreak where Sinner quickly took control with an early mini-break.
And he repeated that to go 4-0 up and looked to be running off with the deciding game until Djokovic brought the run to halt by recovering one of the mini-breaks at 5-2, but it was too late as Sinner set up two set points and claimed the set on the first.
That success proved all Sinner needed to finally break the Djokovic serve in the fourth game of the second set which he held on to become the champion of Shanghai after one-hour and 37-minutes with his 8th ace of the match without providing his Serbian opponent a break chance throughout the final.
“It was a very tough match, obviously, playing against Novak is one of the toughest challenges we have,” said Sinner, who leveled the pair’s series at 4-4.
“I’m very happy with how I handled the situation. He was serving great the first set, I couldn’t find a way to break him. I played a really good tie-break which gave me confidence to start off well in the second set.
“It’s tough to tell you a secret about [Djokovic] because he doesn’t have any weaknesses. You have to try and use the small chances that he gives you, but there are not many during the match. He is a legend of our sport, he’s very tough to play against, so I am very happy.”
Novak Djokovic addresses the crow holding his runner’s-up trophy
(Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
Djokovic, who was bidding to become the third man to win 100 tour-level titles (Connors, Federer), was complimentary of Sinner’s performance.
“I’ve had lots of success at Chinese tournaments in the past and hadn’t played in China for five years, so I’ve missed it and I’m really glad that I came this year,” he said.
“I think I played some really good tennis, but congratulations to Jannik. He was just too good today. Too strong, too fast, well done. You’re having an incredible year. You deserve this.”
There were no signs of knee problems though the injury he had treated in his previous two matches, might well have caught up with him in the second set when his game dropped below his usual standards.
