Astana (Kazakhstan), Oct 9: Serbian tennis great Novak Djokovic on Sunday, defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-3, 6-4 to win the third edition of the Astana Open. This was the 90th career tour-level title for Djokovic and the fourth of 2022.
Also, it was the ninth consecutive match victory for the fourth seed, who won the title a week ago in Tel Aviv.
For the third-seeded Greek Tsitsipas, it was the ninth time he played in an ATP Tour final ? and the ninth time he came up empty. Djokovic now leads their ATP Head2Head series 8-2 and has won the past seven.
As a result of the win, the Serbian star secured himself a Top 20 spot in the ATP Live Race to Turin after the 2022 Rolex Paris Masters, meaning the reigning Wimbledon champion qualifies for the 2022 Nitto ATP Finals as a current-year Grand Slam winner.
When the on-court interviewer observed that Djokovic probably never dreamed of 90 ATP Tour titles, Djokovic shook his head.
“I dared to dream, actually,” he corrected. “I always hoped that I would be going to have a great career. Obviously, didn’t know the amount of finals I was going to play, the amount of tournaments I was going to win, but my intention was always to reach the highest heights in our sport,” ATP tour quoted Djokovic.
Tsitsipas will return to the Top 5 in the ATP Rankings on Monday and the 24-year-old Greek still leads all ATP Tour players with 53 match wins. (UNI)
