Dhe Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic won the ATP finals of the eight best players of the year in Turin for the sixth time, breaking the record set by Swiss idol Roger Federer. In his eighth final at the $14.75 million end-of-year tournament on the ATP tour, the 35-year-old Wimbledon winner defeated Norwegian French Open and US Open finalist Casper Ruud with a 7-5, 6-3 win successor to the injured Hamburg Olympic champion Alexander Zverev.
Djokovic received a record bonus of $ 4.74 million for his march to the title. After his three preliminary round successes, the world ranking night had also happily won the semi-final against the American Taylor Fritz 7: 6 (7: 5), 7: 6 (8: 6). Overall, the long-standing world number one, who failed in the semi-finals at Zverev a year ago, only gave up one set in the five encounters on the way to his triumph in Piedmont. Ruud qualified for his first final of the season with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Russia’s Andrei Rublev in the semifinals.
Alcaraz remains number one
Despite Djokovic’s success, the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who was also injured in Turin, ended the year as number one in the world rankings for the first time. From the group of participants in Turin, only his compatriot and Grand Slam record winner Rafael Nadal and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas could have conquered the top position by winning the tournament, but both failed in the preliminary round.
Djokovic got the first set in the final with the first break in the course of the match. In the second round, Ruud’s loss of service to the meanwhile 1: 3 meant the preliminary decision in favor of his twelve-year-old opponent.
With his eighth participation in a final of the ATP Finals, Djokovic drew level with the German idol and his former coach Boris Becker.
