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Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic - Wimbledon 2023
ATP Tennis Players, Novak Djokovic, Tennis News

Novak Djokovic pays huge ‘bravo’ compliment to Jannik Sinner


Novak Djokovic was full of praise for Jannik Sinner after the Italian ended his Davis Cup dream with Serbia this season.

Sinner’s Italy met Djokovic’s Serbia in the semi-finals in Malaga and it was the former who came out on top on a remarkable day.

He beat him in the singles to level the tie and then the pair kitted back up immediately to face-off in the doubles too, which Italy won to advance into the final.

Sinner and Italy completed the job the following day, beating Australia to win the Davis Cup. However, it was the singles match between the two that generated the most talking points.

It was looking impossibly bleak for Sinner at 6-2, 2-6, 4-5 (0-40), but he managed to save all three match points before going onto win the match.

It was an achievement that even Djokovic just had to applaud, even though it had clearly hurt him.

“For me, it’s a huge disappointment, because I take responsibility for it, obviously, after having three match points, and having been so close to victory,” he said.

“It’s really unfortunate. It’s sports. When you lose for your country, the feeling of bitterness is even greater. Congratulations to Italy. They deserved it.

“They played very well, especially Jannik. In singles against me and in doubles as well. He barely missed anything the entire game.

“You just have to say bravo when someone plays like that. I know he has one of the fastest forehands in the game and he puts a lot of spin and power into it.

“I wasn’t too surprised by this. I know Jannik’s qualities, but I thought he might drop his level a little in doubles, and that wasn’t the case.

“He maintained an extremely high level. In singles, in the third set, I had a lot of opportunities to break him but each time he needed it, he found the serve he needed.”

Scale of Jannik Sinner achievement against Novak Djokovic

Players lose from match point up all the time. Nobody likes doing it, but it’s happened to everyone, even the very best.

Djokovic is no different to anyone else in that regard. Even he has lost from match point up. In fact, this was the fourth time in the Serbian’s career that it has happened.

However, what Sinner did against Djokovic was still a remarkable first. It was the very time in his career that Djokovic had been defeated when he had three consecutive match points.

On top of that, Sinner became just the third man in history to beat Djokovic twice in a 12-day period after also defeated him in the round robin stage of the ATP Finals.

READ NEXT: Jannik Sinner: Three stats that prove Italian on cusp of major breakthrough

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Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.