Novak Djokovic returned to the ATP Tour two weeks ago after a long absence. The Serbian tennis player won the Wimbledon tournament this year and then was forced to stop with several tournaments in the United States that could not accommodate him due to the regulations that establish the impossibility of letting in people who have not had the Coronavirus vaccine.
Despite this, Novak Djokovic’s return to the tour was devastating and within a few days Nole won both the ATP tournament in Tel Aviv and the Kazakh tournament in Nur Sultan. The Astana 500 allowed the twenty-one-time winner of Grand Slam titles to access the Turin Finals, so «Nole» will be able to participate in the last big event of the year.
Djokovic won almost every match with no particular concerns and the only major difficulties came in the semi-finals, where the Serb put up a tough fight against Daniil Medvedev. The Russian won the first set 6-4 and came close to winning, then Djokovic won the second set and at the end of the second set Daniil was forced to withdraw due to a physical problem.
Instead, there was no problem in the final, where the Balkan champion beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets. In this 2022 Novak Djokovic missed the Australian Open and the US Open, tournaments that saw him as the absolute favorite, but he could not host it due to vaccination laws.
Djokovic also won Wimbledon this year, but due to ATP decisions he did not receive the 2,000 points that he was really entitled to. A ranking therefore totally distorted with Djokovic who is currently, despite him, number 7 in the ATP ranking.
Nole will play the ATP Finals
Given that he won a Grand Slam tournament this year (Wimbledon last July), Novak Djokovic only had to finish in the top 20 of the rankings to participate in the ATP Finals in Turin. Thanks to his two consecutive titles in Tel-Aviv and Nur-Sultan with this victory against Stefanos Tsitsipas on Sunday, the Serb is guaranteed to remain in the top 20 in the world before the Masters.
At a press conference he expressed his relief at having won his ticket. “The goal was obviously to qualify for the Masters. Now that it’s done, I’ll be able to be more relaxed in my next tournaments. There will be Paris (October 29 to November 6, editor’s note) and Turin (November 13 to 20, editor’s note) to close the season. And then we’ll prepare the next one.»
