The tennis ace made short work of Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Astana Open
© Nir Keidar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images © Getty Images
Novak Djokovic sealed back-to-back titles in consecutive weekends on Sunday after winning the Astana Open final in Kazakhstan.
The Serb beat world number six Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-4 and made short work of the Greek, seeing him off in 75 minutes.
Following his triumph in Tel Aviv last weekend, Djokovic won his fourth title of the season and 90th of his career overall.
When the on-court interviewer remarked that Djokovic had probably never dreamed of clinching so many titles, Djokovic shook his head and said, “I dared to dream, actually.”
“I always hoped that I would … have a great career. Obviously, I didn’t know the amount of finals I was going to play, the amount of tournaments I was going to win, but my intention was always to reach the highest heights in our sport.”
Djokovic booked his place in the final after Daniil Medvedev retired from their thrilling semifinal with a leg injury on Saturday.
90th TOUR LEVEL TITLEThe moment 🇷🇸 @DjokerNole clinched the #AstanaOpen crown 🏆 pic.twitter.com/Sae3BNKo7I
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 9, 2022
He started the match with the same high level of play exhibited against the Russian and needed just over a minute to win the first game at love.
When Tsitsipas came back into the first set with the score at 3-4, Djokovic turned up the heat and used the drop shot that topped Medvedev in a tie-break.
Djokovic scored the only break point of the first set and scored another in the fifth game of the second set when Tsitsipas tried a drop shot that hit the net.
With a backhand, the 21-grand slam winner converted his third match point and sentenced his opponent to a ninth defeat in ATP 500 finals.
“I’m just very grateful and blessed to be able to play this well at this stage of my life,” Djokovic said.
“You know, 35 is not 25. But I think the experience, probably, in these kinds of matches and big occasions helps as well to approach [them] mentally in the right way.”
Djokovic was forced to take three months off away from the court after winning Wimbledon in July, due to not being vaccinated for Covid-19, meaning he missed a number of tournaments, including the US Open.
Asked if the experience made him hungrier for success, he said it did.
“I could not ask for a better re-start of the season. I’m super-pumped and motivated to end the season as well as I have done these past couple of weeks,” he added.
Djokovic now leads Tsitsipas 8-2 in their head-to-head series and has won their past seven matches.
