Holger Rune is coached by Boris Becker. He played a long match against Novak Djokovic at the ATP Finals – but had to admit defeat
Defending champion Novak Djokovic has made a successful start to the ATP Finals, but had to fight for more than three hours to achieve his first victory. The world number one from Serbia won his opening match in Turin late on Sunday evening against the young Danish star coached by Boris Becker, Holger Rune, after a tough battle 7:6 (7:4), 6:7 (1:7), 6:3.
After exactly 3:04 hours, the 36-year-old converted his first match point. This also means that Djokovic will end the year as number one in the world. Rune wrote in his story on Instagram afterwards: “It was a great match, but I wasn’t good enough. I’ll keep fighting. “
Sinner was also convincing
In the first match of the day, Italy’s Jannik Sinner had previously beaten Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas 6:4, 6:4 to take a first step towards the semi-finals.
Alexander Zverev will not be involved in the action until this Monday. The Olympic champion will face Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz from Spain in his opening match at 2.30 pm (Sky). His other opponents in the preliminary round are the two Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrei Rublev.
Djokovic has won the Australian Open, French Open and US Open
Djokovic and Rune fought a thrilling duel at the Pala Alpitour in Turin. The 20-year-old Rune was one break ahead in the first two sets, but was unable to defend his lead in each case. Djokovic, who has won the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open this year, won the first tie-break. Rune clearly had the upper hand in the second tie-break. Rune then lost his strength in the third
Sinner was the more dominant player against Tsitsipas right from the start. The 22-year-old served well and didn’t concede a single break point in the entire match. Tsitsipas, on the other hand, lost his serve once in both sets and had to concede defeat after 1:25 hours. Sinner converted his first match point with an ace and was loudly celebrated by the Italian fans afterwards.
