He came back from the abyss against Djokovic, beat him twice on the day and qualified Italy for the Davis Cup final

It’s usually Novak Djokovic who picks those matches that look like losers. The one who manages to get out of situations in which many other players would give up, consciously or unconsciously. He never stops playing games. It is that mental strength that led him to become the best tennis player in history (or one of the best, so as not to get into that debate) and that allowed him, for example, to lift a double Meeting point In the 2019 Wimbledon final against Roger Federer, nothing more, nothing less.

but, In this case it was the opposite. For the semi-finals of Davis Cup Against Italy, after the initial victory of his compatriot Miomir Kekmanović over Lorenzo Musetti, he faced the world number one for the third time in the past two weeks. Yannick Siner. Their win would put Serbia into the final, where Australia was already waiting. Victory was in his hands.

The score was 5-4 and 0-40 in the third set. Triple match point. It seemed impossible for him to escape. But she escaped him. First, an unforced backhand error. Then he sent a strong cross, which he failed to return. Finally, this is a point well addressed by Sinner, who defined the network.

The Italian held serve, and was broken the next day games The victory was decided by serving: 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 in two hours and 32 minutes, leaving the team led by Filippo Volandri alive. Djokovic has never lost in his entire career after taking a triple match point. He arrived at the Martín Carpeña Sports Palace in Malaga for the first time. Unbelievable but true.

Djokovic and Sinner faced each other last week in a tournament ATP World Tour Finals Torino: The Italian won the second match round robin, He then gave him an extra life by defeating Holger Röhn and they met again in the final. There, the Serb won a record seven Masters titles.

A new showdown arrived on Saturday in the Davis Cup semi-finals, and with the world number four’s victory, the path to the final in doubles had to be decided. There are, once again, face to face the two main protagonists of the final part of the season: on one side of the grid, Sinner and Sonego; On the other hand, Djokovic and Kemanovic. A comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win for the Italian duo who will seek the Salad Bowl title against Australia on Sunday.

This is Italy’s first Davis Cup final since 1998, when the team that included Andrea Godinzi, the current ATP president, lost 4-1 to Magnus Norman’s Sweden in Milan. The team will seek its second title in the championship, after the title it won in 1976, with Adriano Panatta and Corrado Barazzotti as the most prominent figures.

Novak Djokovic has achieved 20 consecutive wins in Davis Cup singles. His last defeat was in September 2011, immediately after winning the title that Serbia won in 2010. On that occasion, and also in the semi-finals, he was forced to retire due to injury when he lost to Serbia 7-6 and 3-0. Juan Martin del Potro.

That long streak ended on Saturday and the person who broke it was Jannik Sinner, who also became The first tennis player to be defeated loom In consecutive weeks since Andy Murray did it at the Masters 1000 in Canada and Cincinnati back in 2008.

These are numbers that show the amazing conclusion of this year for the Italian, who enjoys his best classification (4), and won his most important title (M1000 Canada) this season, which promises to compete for the four major championships and number one in 2024. of the world.