MY ACCOUNT
Novak Djokovic claimed the 90th ATP Tour title of his illustrious career after landing the Astana Open crown with a straight-sets victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The Serbian also secured a place at next month’s ATP Finals in Turin after prevailing 6-3 6-4 in just 75 minutes.
It was Djokovic’s fourth piece of silverware of the season – adding to his triumphs in Wimbledon, Rome and Tel Aviv – and stretched his winning streak to nine matches.
The 21-time major winner had prevailed in each of his last six encounters with Tsitsipas and claimed a crucial break in game eight of the opening set, before serving it out to draw first blood.
Seeking his maiden ATP 500 title at the ninth attempt, Tsitsipas was aiming to join Djokovic in becoming only the second male player to win a tour-level title on all three surfaces this season.
However, the Greek ace hit 25 unforced errors throughout the contest to his opponent’s seven and was broken again in game five of the second set.
Djokovic, who won 33 of his 38 first-serve points and did not face a single break point, subsequently sealed victory with a brilliant backhand winner to make it back-to-back titles following last week’s triumph in Tel Aviv.
“I always hoped that I would be going to have a great career. Obviously, [I] 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.
“I’m just very grateful and blessed to be able to play this well at this stage of my life. I think the experience, probably, in these kinds of matches and big occasions helps as well to approach mentally in the right way.
“I could not ask for a better restart of the season. I’m super-pumped and motivated to end the season as well as I have done these past couple of weeks.”
