Tennis player Novak Djokovic beat Russian and world number 2 Daniil Medvedev 4-6, 6-3 and 6-3 on Sunday to win the Paris Open, his fifth title of the season. In addition, he obtained his sixth crown at the Masters 1000 in Paris and surpassed Nadal as the top winner in this type of tournaments (both shared the mark with 36 each).
The match started on the left foot for the Serbian, who started uncomfortable and committing a large number of unforced errors, while his rival kept pace with him and practically did not miss balls. In this way, he forced Djokovic to make a dozen unforced errors in the first set, which ended 6-4 for Medvedev.
In the second round, Djokovic was seen with a different attitude. He began to try to surprise his rival using a lot of the resource of the serve and volley, while he became firmer from the bottom. In this way, he got a quick advantage to get 4-1. Said break was enough to take the second set 6-3 and send the game to the final set.
The last round started very even and with both players showing why they are the two best in the world. They remained even on the scoreboard until 2 equal, but in the fifth game Djokovic got the long-awaited break and then broke again to get 5-2 and with the serve to close the game.
That was when Medvedev had a slight reaction that allowed him to break down and get 5-3 down, but then the world number 1 had an impeccable return game and closed the game with a parallel right unattainable for the Russian, who was his executioner in the final of the US Open.
Finally, it was a victory for Djokovic by 4-6, 6-3 and 6-3 in 2 hours and 15 minutes of play. Perhaps the data that explains the Serbian’s comeback was the number of times he went online: there were 36 in total, while he won 27 of those points (75%).
The ATP season is coming to an end in 2021 and only the Stockholm ATP remains, which will be played next week, and then the Masters Tournament, which brings together the eight best players of the season.
On this occasion, the qualifiers for the end of the year tournament that will be played for the first time in Turin, Italy, are: Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev, Matteo Berrettini, Hubert Hurkacz and Casper Ruud.
On the other hand, the Next Gen ATP Finals will also be held in Milan (from November 9 to 13), which will be attended by Argentines Juan Manuel Cerúndolo and Sebastián Báez.
A new record for Djokovic
This Saturday, Djokovic beat the Polish Hubert Hurkacz in a very close match, which allowed him to finish the season as world number 1 and become the first in history to do so 7 times (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018 , 2020 and 2021). In this category he was equaled in 6 with the American Pete Sampras.
This year he had also been the first male tennis player to win every Grand Slam twice and also surpassed Roger Federer in weeks at the top of the rankings. Now he is also the top winner of Masters 1000, since with today’s he surpassed Rafael Nadal’s 36.
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