Novak Djokovic secured a record-extending eighth year-end No. 1 rating after beating Denmark’s Holger Rune in his first group stage match of the 2023 ATP Finals on Sunday.
Djokovic is within the Inexperienced Group of the year-end championship in Turin, Italy, alongside Rune, Jannik Sinner and Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Serb dashed Carlos Alcaraz’s slim probabilities of ending the season atop the ATP rankings by beating Rune, who’s working together with his ex-coach Boris Becker.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion gained the hard-fought contest 7-6(4), 6-7(1), 6-3.
Djokovic’s report four-hundredth week as World No. 1 is assured when the rankings are up to date on Nov. 20. The following closest ATP participant to him within the checklist is Roger Federer (310 weeks), who’s now retired.
The 36-year-old additionally prolonged his lead over Pete Sampras, who’s second within the all-time checklist of most year-end No. 1 finishes (six). Roger Federer, Jimmy Connors and Rafael Nadal spherical up the highest 5 with 5 finishes apiece.
Novak Djokovic: “It was a really emotional win figuring out if I gained I used to be going to clinch the year-end No. 1”
Novak Djokovic in motion on the 2023 Nitto ATP Finals
In his on-court interview, Novak Djokovic mentioned his win over Holger Rune. He praised his 20-year-old opponent for placing up an excellent struggle and described the victory as “emotional”, as he knew that the World No. 1 rating was at stake.
“I assumed he performed nice. I performed nice at some moments. At some moments I dropped the extent, however general a win is a win,” the ATP Finals web site quoted the Serb as saying.
“It was a really emotional win and a tricky win due to the importance of tonight’s match, clearly figuring out that if I gained I used to be going to clinch the year-end No. 1. In order that was added stress and stress, however after a horrible second-set tie-break I feel I performed a very strong deciding set,” he added additional.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion is trying to go previous Roger Federer’s ATP Finals report of six wins. He faces a troublesome activity forward with group matches in opposition to house favourite Jannik Sinner and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
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