By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Sunday, October 13, 2024
Picture credit score: Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty
Novak Djokovic has utilized creative deconstruction capturing 24 Grand Slam titles.
Seeing Djokovic attempting to interrupt down Jannik Sinner in at present’s Shanghai ultimate was like watching a former heavyweight champion attempting to knock out his personal shadow.
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The Grand Slam king took his cracks, however world No. 1 Sinner struck stinging blows scoring a 7-6(4), 6-3 win over fourth-seeded Djokovic in at present’s Rolex Shanghai Masters ultimate.
Solidifying his standing because the world’s finest participant, Sinner seized his seventh title of the season, enhancing to 7-1 in finals, and raised his 2024 hard-record vs. Prime 5 opponents to 8-2.
Since shedding to Djokovic within the ATP Finals in Turin final November, Sinner has crushed the 10-time Australian Open champion thrice in a row and has gained 4 of their final 5 conferences to degree their head-to-head at 4 wins apiece.
Requested to evaluate the similarities between himself and Sinner, Djokovic cited three key elements between the pair of former junior standout skiers:
1. Stability off forehand and backhand and point-ending energy off both wing.
2. Each are baseliners who developed all-court video games and sharpened their serves throughout their careers.
3. The talent of straddling the baseline and taking the ball on the rise empowers each males to squeeze opponents’ response time and “suffocate” them over the course of baseline rallies.
“Throughout, you understand, each shot [Sinner’s] bought within the recreation,” Djokovic mentioned. “He is improved his serve tremendously, I believe that grew to become an enormous weapon. He is simply very aggressive from the baseline, as quickly as he is bought a shorter ball, he is taking the initiative.
“Simply very strong from forehand and backhand, does not make too many errors, and simply tries to remove the time from the opponent.
“You understand, that is one thing that jogs my memory of myself all through my profession, that is what I’ve accomplished for therefore a few years constantly, you understand, taking part in fast-paced tennis, taking away time from the opponent, form of suffocating the opponent, in order for you, in a sure manner.”
As a trio of former world No.1 champions—Carlos Alcaraz, his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, and 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer—watched intently, the 23-year-old Sinner separated himself from the four-time Shanghai champion denying Djokovic his a hundredth profession championship.
A yr in the past, Djokovic captured three of the 4 Grand Slams with solely Alcaraz’s dramatic Wimbledon ultimate conquest stopping the Serbian from making historical past as the primary man to win the calendar Grand Slam since Rocket Rod Laver in 1969.
This yr, Sinner and Alcaraz have cut up the Grand Slam spoils.
Djokovic says Sinner’s highly effective presence and championship consistency are keys to his spectacular season changing into the primary Italian man to safe the ATP season-ending world No. 1 rating.
“That is what you need, you need your opponents at all times to really feel beneath stress out of your pictures, out of your velocity, out of your presence on the court docket,” Djokovic mentioned. “So he is bought that, I imply, this yr he is been so constant, it is actually, actually spectacular.”
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