Novak Djokovic qualified for the Masters final

Novak Dojokovic is having a great week in Italy. Committed, in Turin, to the Masters, the tournament which brings together the eight best players – not injured – at this stage of the season, he qualified for the final, Saturday April 19, by beating the American Taylor Fritz, 9e world player, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6).

“We played some pretty incredible points at the end of the tie-break. I didn’t feel very well today. Fritz served very well, it was not easy for me. I needed a lot of concentration to win.”, explained Djokovic, in Italian, at the end of the match. Fritz, who was playing for the first time in the Masters tournament having taken advantage of the withdrawal of the world number one, the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, did not make many mistakes, but they were all heavily penalised.

It’s the Serb’s fourth win this week, making him the only unbeaten player in Italy and closing in on a jackpot of $4,740,300 (€4.58 million), which he will pocket if he wins the final on Sunday.

Read also: Novak Djokovic obtains his visa to participate in the Australian Open, according to several Australian media

On another front, Djokovic announced, Wednesday, November 16, that the Australian authorities granted him a visa, sesame to participate in the next Grand Slam tournament, in January in Melbourne. At the beginning of 2022, the Serb got entangled in a bad soap opera by trying to enter the territory without being vaccinated against Covid. After this episode, his access to Australia was conditional on an agreement from the Australian government, which he ended up obtaining.

In Melbourne, Djokovic, currently 8e in the world rankings, will therefore be able to try to win there for the tenth time, and to equal the record for the number of Grand Slam victories (twenty-two) currently held by the Spaniard Rafael Nadal.

Before that, the 35-year-old Serb will be able, from Sunday, to chase another record, that of the number of Masters victories (six), held by the Swiss Roger Federer. In the final, Djokovic will face the winner of the match between, at 9 p.m., the Russian Andrey Rublev (9e) to the Norwegian Casper Ruud (4e).

The World with AFP

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