Italian Lorenzo Sonego rejoices after the victory over Novak Djokovic.
Lisi Niesner, Reuters
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The 42nd player in the world rankings, Sonego, took care of one of the biggest surprises of this year’s ATP Tour by winning over Djokovic. The 25-year-old native of Turin averted all six breakballs to the favored Serb and scored the greatest success of his career, in which he had never beaten a player from the top ten.
“This was the most beautiful match of my life. Novak is the best player in the world, but I played amazing today,” rejoiced Sonego, who lost five days ago in the final round of qualifying and entered the main competition after Argentine Diego Schwartzman withdrew.
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Djokovic admitted that his performance today was influenced by the fact that, by advancing to the quarterfinals, he practically ensured that he remained in first place in the rankings until the end of the season. He will do it for the sixth time in his career, equaling Pete Sampras’ record. “I did what I needed and why I came here. I am completely in line with today’s result, I am healthy and I look forward to the peak of the season in London,” said Srb, who will skip the Masters indoor tournament in Paris next week and end the year at the tournament. champions in London.
The 33-year-old Djokovic, who returned to Vienna’s Stadthalle for the first time since 2007, suffered his third loss of the season. So far, he left defeated only in the eight finals of the US Open with Pablo Carreň after disqualification for shooting the referee with the ball and in the final Roland Garros after losing to Rafael Nadal.
The home favorite Dominic Thiem also finished in Vienna today and will not defend last year’s triumph. The winner of this year’s US Open was not enough in the quarterfinals for Andrei Rublyov from Russia, who after winning 7: 6 and 6: 2 can win his fifth title this year.
After Djokovic, the number two is also in Vienna in the quarterfinals
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The eighth player in the ranking, Rublyov, bet 30 victories to the world three and averted both breakballs. This season marked by coronavirus, the 23-year-old Russian has improved his record to 37 wins and seven defeats, only Djokovic has more victories (39-3).
Today, Rublyov has won the 13th game in a row in the ATP 500 tournaments and can build on recent trophies from Hamburg and St. Petersburg. In January, he dominated Doha and Adelaide. He will compete for the finals in Vienna with South African Kevin Anderson, who won the title in the Austrian capital two years ago.
| Men’s tennis tournament in Nur-Sultan (hard surface, $ 337,000 grant): |
| Singles – Quarterfinals: |
| Millman (4-Austr.) – Paul (7-USA) 6:7 (5:7), 6:4, 7:6 (7:5) |
| Tiafoe (USA) – Gerasimov (BEL) 7: 6 (7: 5), 5: 7, 7: 5 |
| Mannarino (3-Fr.) – McDonald (USA) 6:1, 6:4 |
| Ruusuvuori (Fin.) –Kukuškin (Kaz.) 6: 3, 6: 1 |
| Men’s tennis tournament in Vienna (hard surface, subsidy 1,550,950 euros): |
| Singles – Quarterfinals: |
| Rubljov (5-Rus.) – Thiem (2-Rak.) 7: 6 (7: 5), 6: 2 |
| Anderson (JAR) – Medvedev (4-RUS) 6: 4, 7: 6 (7: 5) |
| Sonego (It.) – Djokovic (1-Srb.) 6: 2, 6: 1 |
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