The Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner won the title this Sunday in the Shanghai Tournament, eighth and penultimate Masters 1.000 of the season and which is played on a hard court, after beating the Serbian 7-6 (4) and 6-3 in the final Novak Djokovic who has not been able to celebrate the 100th trophy of his record.
In their fourth consecutive final, Sinner, that with his victory on Saturday in the semifinals against the Czech Tomas Machac (6-4, 7-5) with guaranteed to finish the year at number one in the ATP rankingthus winning his seventh trophy of the year – among them the Australian Open, with which he became the first Italian to lift a ‘major’ since Adriano Panatta at Roland Garros 1976and the US Open-.
At the start of this Sunday’s stellar duel at the Qizhong Stadiumboth contenders had a firm start, with confidence in the service and without errors. In fact, neither of them even conceded a breakout opportunitywhich forced the round to be decided in the ‘tie-break’.
In sudden death, Sinner soon went up 4-0 to the light and condemned the Balkan, four-time champion in Shanghai (2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018), to go in tow. Two minigames in a row brought Djokovic, but the transalpine took advantage of one of his two set points to take the lead in the contest after almost an hour of play.
The balance of the first games of the second set was broken in the fourth game, when the number one in the world achieved a ‘break’ which he consolidated with his serve later. That blow was lethal for the Serbian, who could not respond and ended up giving in to the push of Sinner, which he fulfilled on his first match point and closed the match in one hour and 37 minutes. It is already his 65th victory of the year.
With this triumph, with which he celebrates the fourth Masters 1,000 of his careerSinner becomes the first tennis player from his country to win the Asian competition and achieve his seventh winding of the year -Australian Open, Rotterdam, Miami, Halle, Cincinnati, US Open and Shanghai. At 23 years and one month, is the cyoungest champion in tournament historysurpassing the Andy Murray –23 years and five months in 2010-.
Furthermore, it is the pFirst player to win three ATP Masters 1,000 titles in the same season -Miami, Cincinnati and Shanghai- since he did it Rafael Nadal in 2018 and with 10 consecutive victories in tournaments of this category, is the first to link two titles in a row since Djokovic in 2020 -Rome and Cincinnati-.
