The 36-year-old Serb was defeated by the local favorite Sinner earlier this week in the group stage, but he got his revenge with an outstanding performance, winning 6-3 6-3.
A packed crowd at Turin’s Pala Alpitour had hoped to see the 22-year-old Sinner claim the biggest title of his career, but Djokovic was simply on another level.
The world number one only dropped two points on his serve in a flawless first set, and once he broke Sinner’s serve in the fourth game, it was mostly one-way traffic.
At one point, Djokovic won 14 consecutive points against the world number four before Sinner briefly halted the 24-time Grand Slam champion’s momentum.
Sinner managed to avoid going down a double break as Djokovic surprisingly missed a routine passing shot. Sinner then had chances to break back in the sixth game, but he couldn’t convert either of them.
Djokovic also failed to convert break points that would have given him a 5-2 lead, as a few errors crept into his game.
The crowd did their best to lift Sinner’s spirits, but Djokovic continued to move towards victory. The match ended with a double fault from Sinner. With this win, Djokovic becomes the most successful player in the tournament’s history, surpassing Roger Federer.
His victory concludes a season in which he won three out of the four Grand Slam titles and regained the world number one ranking from Carlos Alcaraz. For his competitors, it is worrisome that Djokovic will enter 2024 as dominant as ever.
“This is very special,” Djokovic said on court while being joined by his children Stefan and Tara. “It’s been one of the best seasons I’ve had, and to win against Jannik, who has been playing so well, is phenomenal. I had to step up my game with the way Carlos and Jannik have been playing.”
Djokovic also outplayed Spain’s Alcaraz in the semi-finals, although his place in the last four was in doubt after his narrow loss to Sinner in what was considered one of the matches of the year. Ironically, it was Sinner’s subsequent victory over Holger Rune that kept Djokovic alive at the year-end tournament.
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