The Serbian beat the American Taylor Fritz 7:6 (7:5), 7:6 (8:6) in the semifinal, the Norwegian prevailed 6:2, 6:4 against the Russian Andrei Rublev.
Novak Djokovic is in Turin for the eighth time in his career in the final of the ATP Finals, the former maestro. In Sunday’s final at 7 pm he will have the chance to win the season-ending tournament of the best eight players for the sixth time. In this way he would have caught up with the record holder Roger Federer.
“I had to fight to survive. I didn’t feel very well,” admitted Djokovic on the pitch. “After yesterday’s long game, I knew it would take me some time to find the dynamic movement.” The day before, Djokovic had only managed to prevail against Daniil Medvedev after 3:11 hours with 7:6 in the third set. “It wasn’t one of my best days, but I’m glad I made it.” Most recently, Djokovic won the final tournament seven years ago.
In the matches against Ruud, Djokovic still has a clean slate. Djokovic prevailed twice at the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments in Rome (2020 and 2022) and once in the group stage of the 2021 ATP Finals in Turin. He has not yet pronounced a sentence in the duels. It’s entirely possible that this will change on Sunday, especially as Ruud had to fight far less in the semis with a playing time of just over an hour.
