Novak Djokovic has won his first match at the ATP Finals in Turin. The Serbian defeated the Dane Holger Rune 7-6 (4), 6-7 (1), 6-3 at the unofficial World Cup for the best eight players of the year.
The victory ensures that Djokovic will once again end the year as number one in the world. That is the eighth time for the Serbian, who was already the record holder. Pete Sampras is number two on the list. The American was the world’s best six times for an entire calendar year, followed by Jimmy Connors, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal (5).
Djokovic lost the Wimbledon final to Carlos Alcaraz last summer, but after that, he won everything. The counter now stands at nineteen victories in a row.
Djokovic was broken at 2-2 in the first set but immediately broke back. The set then remained evenly matched, after which the Serbian came out on top in the tiebreak (7-4).
The second set showed many similarities with the first. Except that Rune now won the tiebreaker. He did so convincingly with 7-1.
In the third set, Djokovic was broken once, while he broke Rune twice. Djokovic was able to reach 5-2 and took the match over the line.
