Serbian Novak Djokovic, former number one in the world and current 7, advanced this Saturday to the final of the Masters 1000 in Paris after eliminating Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (5) in a very even match. The Balkan won 6-2, 3-6 and 7-6 (7-4) in two hours and 19 minutes of play on the central court of Paris-Bercy and this Sunday he will go for the 91st title of his career.
The 35-year-old Serbian will face the surprise of the tournament in the final, the Danish Holger Rune (19 years old), who in the first semifinal beat the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (8) 6-4 and 6-2. The game can be seen on ESPN from 9.
Rune, 18 in the world, will play a Masters 1000 final for the first time. The young man, who also eliminated the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals (the number one in the world retired due to injury when he lost 6-3 and 6-6 (3-1)), he only faced Djokovic once in his career. In the first round of the US Open 2021, “Nole” beat Rune 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-1.
Djokovic will play his 56th final in a Masters 1000 tournament, which is next in category to the Grand Slams, and will seek his seventh title in Paris Bercy, where he won in 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019 and 2021. year, the Serbian – who could not play all the tournaments in the season since he refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus – won the ATPs in Astana and Tel Aviv, Wimbledon and the Masters 1000 in Rome 2022. Rune, meanwhile, added the first two titles of his career this year by winning the tournaments in Munich and Stockholm.
Paris Bercy is played on hard courts and will award prizes of 5,415,410 euros.