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reRussian Andrej Rublew won his fifth ATP Tour title of the year and thus qualified for the season finale of the eight best professional tennis players in London (as of November 15). The world number eight beat Italian Lorenzo Sonego 6: 4, 6: 4 in the Vienna final. The 23-year-old had previously triumphed in Doha, Adelaide, Hamburg and St. Petersburg. With five tournament victories in Corona 2020, Rublew is the most successful player of the season ahead of Novak Djokovic (4).
At the Wiener Stadthalle Rublew defeated defending champion Dominic Thiem (Austria) in the quarterfinals. His opponent Sonego had moved into the main field after qualifying as a lucky underdog and on his way to the final, among others, he beat Serbian industry leader Djokovic in straight sets (6: 2, 6: 1) surprisingly clear.
Tournament director Herwig Straka later criticized the 17-time Grand Slam winner. “There is no place to be resentful. In principle, we also have a very good relationship, but how he played on Friday and his subsequent statement at the press conference were unnecessary, ”said the Austrian.
Never before in his career had Djokovic had fewer games in a match of more than two sets than against Sonego. Curiously, the Serb had little defended himself from defeat. After that, he quietly surrendered despite the bankruptcy. “I did what I had to do and why did I come here. I can live with the result completely and look forward. “
Novak Djokovic is not affected by the bankruptcy: “I did what I had to do.”
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Image: EPA
He should have achieved his goal of finishing the year of tennis as number one for the sixth time and thus catching up with his youth idol Pete Sampras. Rafael Nadal (Spain) probably only has a theoretical chance of displacing Djokovic from the top.
Sonego didn’t care, for him it was “the best victory of my life. Novak is the best player in the world, but today I played very, very well, ”said the world number 42.
At the Nur-Sultan / Kazakhstan tournament, meanwhile, Australian John Millman won his first professional tour title. The 31-year-old Frenchman beat Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7: 5, 6: 1 in the final.
