Novak Djokovic breaks record for most Grand Slam final appearances with victory over Sinner
Novak Djokovic repeatedly came through in the clutch moments to seal a 6-3,6-4,7-6 win over No 8 seed Jannik Sinner to reach his 35th Grand Slam final.
The feat ensures that Djokovic is now the sole owner of the record for the most appearances in Grand Slam finals as he moves clear of Chris Evert who played in 34 Major championship matches.
Although Djokovic won in straight sets the mean difference between the players was a scant 10 points.
However, it was Djokovic who was able to secure the big points as he saved six break points.
The perfectionist in Djokovic will no doubt pick out that he only converted two of the nine break points he generated in the semi-final.
In his two hours and 46 minute victory, Djokovic’s clean, deep returning was a persistent threat on the Sinner serve.
This match presented in sharp contrast to the triumph Djokovic secured in the Wimbledon quarterfinal matchup with Sinner last year.
On that occasion, the Serbian had to come back from two sets down to win at SW19 en route to a seventh title, but this time, a similarly epic match was not written in the stars as Djokovic’s grass-court expertise against his 21-year-old opponent shined through at crucial moments and despite the narrow margins the young Italian failed to gain a foothold in the contest.
After Sinner had a good start on Centre Court, Djokovic’s domination was brought to bear on the 21-year-old.
Sinner created two break points with some strong ballplay in the first game, but his failure to take advantage of either of those chances proved costly right away, as Djokovic converted his one break point of the set in the following game.
Djokovic finished off the first set by masterfully deflecting his opponent’s groundstrokes, and the second set proceeded in a similar manner. He increased the pressure on Sinner, who played an error-filled game and lost serve at 1-1 as a result. The next game’s hindrance call against Djokovic at 15/15 did not stop him from moving on to take the second set since he gave Sinner no chances to make any sort of statement.
In his third encounter with Djokovic, Sinner was in danger of losing all of the impetus and capitulating, but three powerful serves helped him hold at 0/40 in the third game and the Italian kept furiously clubbing the ball to keep Djokovic on his toes. Despite having two set chances on Djokovic’s serve at 5-4, 15/40, he was again unable to win the crucial points as Djokovic resisted and reeled off six of the last seven points in the ensuing tie-break.
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