Novak Djokovic has earned the right to play tennis whenever he wants. The best tennis player in history, according to his own rivals, including Rafael Nadal, returned to the courts on Friday, 28 days after losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals of the US Open. Djokovic advanced to the third round of the Shanghai Masters 1000 (he has won it four times) after defeating Marin Cilic, 7-6(2), 6-4. Cilic is the seventh player to suffer 20 or more defeats against the Belgrade tennis player.
Never in the history of tournaments in this category, since its creation in 1990, has there been a match between rivals of such age.Between them they are 75.43 years old: Djokovic (38) and Cilic (37). There is no one more multilingual than the world number three, who said goodbye to the camera with perfect Chinese.
His next rival will be the German Yannick Hanfmann, who took advantage of Frances Tiafoe’s poor form. Novak’s victory was decisively contributed by his Spanish agent, Carlos Gomez-Herrera, who acted as his coach.
Despite making a schedule to suit himself and skipping the TMS events in Madrid, Toronto and Cincinnati, the Serb is third in the Race 2025, which offers a ticket to the ATP Finals in Turin (November 9-16). He has 4,230 points, which is 885 points more than Lorenzo Musetti. The Italian would close today the ’round robin’ of the masters’ event‘Nole’ has inscribed his name seven times in the list of winners of the year-end Masters (one of his many records) and did not play in last year’s edition. His last triumph dates back to 2023 when he defeated Jannik Sinner in the final. That was his last triumph against the Italian, his executioner in the five most recent meetings and with whom he could meet in the semifinals in Shanghai.
“It is difficult for me to play five sets with Alcaraz and Sinner. It is frustrating not to be able to do on the court everything that I could do before, but it is normal and happens because of age,” acknowledged the 24-time Grand Slam champion after losing to Carlitos in the recent semifinals of the US Open.
From Belgrade to Athens
Djokovic has taken the Belgrade tournament (he is the owner of the licence) to Athens. It appears on the calendar from 2 to 8 November, just before the ATP Finals in Turin. He has become the oldest tennis player to beat a Grand Slam winner in Masters 1000 events. Another mark in his infinite collection.
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