Tennis Live: Novak Djokovic beats Casper Ruud to clinch sixth ATP finals
The rocky season of the 35 year-old Novak Djokovic ended with a sweet victory to equal Federer’s six ATP Finals titles. Follow for more tennis live news here!
It is a sweet victory for Novak Djokovic, to capture the prestigious season-ending event title after he had some bad luck and suffering this year, including the two majors he was forced to miss out because of his reluctance to have a Covid-19 vaccine shot. He defeated Casper Ruud in straight sets with a score line of 7-5, 6-3 in the Pala Alpitour. He now owns 65 ‘Big Titles’ which consists of trophies from Grand Slam Championship, ATP Finals, ATP Masters 1000 tournament, and even an Olympic singles gold medal.
He surpassed other legends in owning ‘Big Titles’ in tennis history, with longtime friend and rival Rafael Nadal owning 59 titles, and Federer with 54. No other tennis player holds more than 30 titles except Pete Sampras with 30 Big titles.
Djokovic went through the tournament undefeated, and because of this he took the biggest pay cheque in tennis with a whopping $4,740,300.
“It feels deeply satisfying and, at the same time, a huge relief because of the circumstances that I have been through this year, situations earlier this year, of course, with Australia,” Djokovic said during an interview.
“That had an effect obviously on my start of the year. For the first several months, I was trying to find that balance game-wise but also mentally in order to be able to come back to the court and find that tennis level that I need,” he added.
On the other hand, Ruud (23) had a very impressive campaign in the ATP Finals and will likely become one of the cornerstones of this sport together with Carlo Alcaraz. He made two errors to give the edge to the Serbian Legend in the first set. With this given momentum, Djokovic took full maneuver of the match and broke Ruud’s serve on the fourth game of the second set. However, Ruud did not back down and gave his best and all of his energy to make it rock and rough for the 21-time major winner and forced him into a 36 shot rally, but still, Djokovic ended it with a strong and powerful ace.
This is the third finals defeat for the Norwegian sensation, who also lost in the French Open Finals and US Open finals.
“Overall, if you gave me the offer to end the year at number three, play the finals that I’ve played, on 1st January this year, I would probably sign the contract right away. No doubt about it,” Ruud said.
This is a high-class return in competitive tennis for Djokovic and a great way to end the season with a historic title in ATP Finals.
“I missed a couple of forehands in the last game when I was serving for it,” Djokovic said after the match. “I had nerves, but I am really grateful to be able to serve the match out. I had a big ace to close out. Seven years [since winning this title] has been a long time. At the same time, the fact that I waited for seven years makes this victory even sweeter and even bigger.”
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