Life goes by and Novak Djokovic never tires of winning. He started 2023 with the Australian Open, to win his twenty-third Grand Slam title and break the tie with Rafael Nadal, and concludes it with his seventh Masters tournament, also remaining alone at the top of this list after leaving Roger Federer behind. Just when time was supposed to start catching up with him, the 36-year-old Djokovic exhibits uncanny fortitude. In less than 24 hours, the world No. 1 has passed Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, 20 and 22 years old, second and fourth in the rankings. Also champion at Roland Garros and the US Open, as well as in Cincinnati, Paris-Bercy and Adelaide, he finishes the season with more titles than anyone else, seven, and comfortably settled at the top of the ranking, where he concludes for the eighth season.

He beat the Italian 6-3 in one hour and 48 minutes, four days after the latter had beaten him for the first time in the group stage. No one had beaten the Serbian twice in this tournament: not Alexander Zverev, who lost in the 2018rôund robin but beat him in the final of the tournament; or Roger Federer, who beat him in the 2015 group stage and then fell in the final; and Nikolay Davydenko, who lost in the round robin and in the 2008 final. Neither was Sinner, who appeared in this Sunday's match with unusual poise.

In case there was any doubt after his three wins in the group stage, he held the pulse in the semi-final against Daniil Medvedev, who had struggled after dropping the second set. Under the inertia of the best week of his career, despite showing obvious symptoms of fatigue, he finished off the Russian. Merciless from the first ball, Djokovic closed out any debate with a majestic performance, perhaps one of the best in living memory. Sinner's cruel fate was that of Sinner, who, overcoming his physical problems, with his victory against Holger Rune in the last match of the Green Group rescued a Djokovic who was out of the tournament.

Appeased audience

The player from Belgrade, who scored 10 consecutive points at the start of the second set, had already silenced the crowd that filled the 13,000 seats of the Pala Alpitour with an unusual start. All of Sinner's merits seemed to belong to the distant past. Sharp on every ball, electric in his legs and with an efficiency in the service typical of a specialist, he came out of the set with 10 winners and only two unforced errors. The Italian only had to barely hold on to the match and not come out of it with a blushing scoreline.

Nor did he look for solutions, when he had shown throughout the week that he can play at different speeds. Trying to beat Djokovic by continually going to the sack, without an alternative proposal that could make him uncomfortable, only widened the highway on which the Balkan was running with the success of his approach. Away from the baseline, paddling from side to side, Sinner proved harmless. He only raised his voice in the sixth game of the second set, with two balls that would have given him the equalizer at three. Like Alcaraz in Saturday's semi-final, he was unable to capitalise on them, replicated by two winners from Nole that he was unable to return.

Always with water up to his neck, threatened on five occasions with being at a sidereal distance on the scoreboard, if there was one thing offered by the tennis player from San Candido, erratic in the face of some concessions from Djokovic in the second set, it was dedication and dignity, virtues of which he will always be able to boast after his admirable attitude against Rune, but which on this occasion were not enough baggage to defeat the man he had saved from shipwreck.

  • tennis
  • Novak Djokovic
  • Carlos Alcaraz
  • Articles Javier Martínez
  • Rafa Nadal