Whims of fate, in an interval of less than a week, Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner have followed inverted paths: the one who laughed six days ago now regrets, and vice versa. The first triumphed in Turin and the Italian was sad at home, who now finds consolation for the defeat in the Masters Cup final with a full-fledged personal revenge. He is missing the bond, San Candido thinks to himself, but what has been done so far no one can take it away from him. This indisputable season of Nole leaves in the resolution a definitive and capitalized emergence, very much to be taken into account in the face of what is to come. It will be Italy, 2-1 against Serbia, that will play the Davis Cup title against Australia today (4:00 p.m., Movistar+). And, who would have thought, he will do so after the one who rarely forgives, Djokovic, did it three times this Saturday.
There were three match points that the number one had, but he did not hit the second individual turn (6-2, 2-6 and 7-5, after Kecmanovic beat Lorenzo Musetti 6-7 (7) , 6-2 and 6-0 in the opening of the series) and the subsequent outcome in the doubles (6-3 and 6-4) condemned Serbia and qualified Italy, which had not played a final since 1998, when it lost in the Milan Forum against Sweden, on clay. Much has changed since then; So much so that today there is no trace of the Swedes, the competition has another format and will be held for the second year in a row at the Martín Carpena in Málaga, with the public simultaneously witnessing the pain of the king and the joy—always considered, always elegant—of the effervescent Sinner. The Italian pardoned Djokovic last week in Turin, avoiding the group stage biscotto who would have dispatched the Serbian, and now rises as the star of these finals.
“Personally it is a big disappointment because I take responsibility after having those three match points,” Djokovic said in the conference room. “But this is sport. When you lose playing for your country, the feeling of bitterness is greater. Jannik has played very well, both in singles and doubles, so I can only congratulate Italy for a performance like this,” continued the one from Belgrade, who will not be able to round out the course as he intended. After having won three majors to single-handedly lead the men’s historical list and having been crowned master for the seventh time, he felt a debt to Davis that he has not been able to repay. In this way, in his history it will continue to appear only the success of 2010, the only time the Serbs reached the top of the competition.
Nole had not lost an individual duel in the Davis Cup since 2011, with 21 successive wins until good old Sinner crossed his path this Saturday, that increasingly accomplished and more imposing tennis player. The transalpine was not even born in ’98 and the Italian Salad Bowl of ’76 sounds like a distant memory, when his predecessors (Panatta, Barazzutti, Bertorelli and Zugarelli) beat Chile in Santiago. But here is a player called to leave his mark. “He has one of the most powerful blows on the circuit. I know his quality, but I thought that, perhaps, he could lower his performance a little in the doubles. It wasn’t like that,” said the Balkan, who avoided talking about fatigue because, he said, “it would sound like an excuse.”
The fact is that no one has beaten him in two consecutive weeks since the Scotsman Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal did so in 2008, and the previous year Mikhail Youzhny. This time, those three match balls flew and the dream disappeared. Kecmanovic’s promising intervention at the beginning of the afternoon was of no use; With those three options wasted, that 5-4 and 0-40 of the second set, Sinner counterattacked the next game with a break and redeemed himself at the end of the day from what happened not long ago at the Pala Alpitour in Turin. Italy, therefore, abounds in these good times its tennis shoes are going through. The ambitious investment of recent years in the grassroots project has boosted it considerably and it also proudly boasts of its figure: Sinner.
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