Novak Djokovic's 19-game winning streak ended at the ATP Finals in Turin. The world No. 1 fell to Yannick Sinner 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-7(2) in an epic battle that lasted just over three hours.
The Serbian had not tasted defeat for 121 days. On July 16, he was stopped by Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final.
The Italian squandered a 4-2 lead in the closing set, but still kept his composure and took down Djokovic. The world No.4 thus guaranteed a place in the next phase after defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets in his previous match, while Nole will still have to work a little harder in the upcoming match against Hubert Hurkac, who is in Turin as a substitute Tsitsipas was injured.
In the final round of the group stage, Sinner will face Holger Rune.
The match started calmly, as in the first 11 games there was only one breakball, which, however, was not realized and the set continued without breakthroughs. However, it was the 11th game that turned out to be key, when Nole surprisingly allowed a 40:0 turnaround on his serve. Syner led 6-5 and closed the set 7-5 on his serve.
In the second set, both opponents were flawless on serve and neither allowed the other to reach a break point. This forced a tiebreaker. In it, Djokovic reached two consecutive set points after Sinner did not find the boundaries of the court during a forehand attack. The Serbian missed the first after a backhand at the net, but at his next opportunity he served, which the world No. 4 was unable to reflect and thus won the set 7-6(5).
The third set went through a quick exchange of breaks. Sinner broke in the sixth game to lead 4-2, but Nole quickly broke back and things again had to be decided in a tiebreak.
However, there were further minutes of collapse for the world No.1 as Yannick Sinner raced to a 5-0 lead, then he had five match points at 6-1, converting his second chance to win that match 7-2 and break Djokovic's winning streak. /BGNES
