SHANGHAI — Prime-ranked Jannik Sinner beat Novak Djokovic in straight units to win the Shanghai Masters on Sunday, giving the Italian his tour-leading seventh title of the season.
The Italian bettered the 24-time Grand Slam champion 7-6 (4), 6-3 in an hour and 37 minutes and by no means confronted a break level within the outside hard-court match. Sinner hit eight aces and 22 winners to 4 and 12, respectively, for Djokovic.
Djokovic was aiming for his one hundredth tour-level title and his fifth in Shanghai. Solely Jimmy Connors with 109 titles and Roger Federer with 103 have hit the century mark in males’s tennis.
Sinner turned the primary man to win greater than six titles in a season since Andy Murray received 9 in 2016. He additionally pulled stage in his profession document in opposition to Djokovic, now at 4 wins apiece.
“It was a really robust match, clearly, taking part in in opposition to Novak is without doubt one of the hardest challenges we’ve got,” Sinner mentioned. “It’s robust to let you know a secret about (Djokovic) as a result of he doesn’t have any weaknesses. It’s important to try to use the small probabilities that he provides you, however there usually are not many in the course of the match. He’s a legend of our sport, he’s very robust to play in opposition to, so I’m very blissful.”
The victory for Sinner got here after he misplaced the ultimate of the China Open in Beijing to Carlos Alcaraz and amid an ongoing doping case.
The 23-year-old Sinner is now 8-2 in opposition to top-5 opponents on laborious courts this yr, with each losses coming in opposition to Alcaraz, who watched Sunday’s remaining from the stands.
The 37-year-old Djokovic was taking part in in China for this primary time in 5 years.
He additionally misplaced to Sinner within the Australian Open semifinals. His solely title for the yr to date was on the Paris Olympics, the place he beat Alcaraz for the gold medal.
“I believe I performed some actually good tennis, however congratulations to Jannik,” Djokovic mentioned. “He was simply too good right this moment. Too robust, too quick, properly carried out. You’re having an unbelievable yr. You deserve this.”
Sabalenka wins Wuhan Open
Second-ranked Aryna Sabalenka received the Wuhan Open for a 3rd yr in a row after beating Zheng Qinwen 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 within the remaining.
It was a rematch of the Australian Open remaining, which Sabalenka received. She then added the U.S Open title final month. She is now 4-0 in opposition to Zheng.
The Belarussian participant took her document on the match to 17-0. She has received 4 tournaments this yr.
