ATP Finals: Novak Djokovic Loses First Match Since Wimbledon

Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner is over the moon after finally clinching his first ever win against current world number 1, Novak Djokovic. Sinner came out triumphant over the Serb at the group stage of the ongoing Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, Italy on Tuesday.

22-year-old Sinner needed to take the match all the way to a third-set tie-break in order to claim victory in his group match encounter against the 24-time Grand Slam champion. In the end, after three hours and nine minutes, he claimed a memorable triumph at 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-2).

The win is significant for Sinner, who has never beaten Djokovic in their three previous encounters. Meanwhile, the Serb won't easily forget the loss either, as it ends his unbeaten run of 19 matches. The 36-year-old last tasted defeat at the hands of Spanish youngster Carlos Alcaraz at the Wimbledon final earlier this year.

Sinner won the first set 7-5 and had the momentum in the second set after going 4-2 up. However, Djokovic does not give up easily, and he managed to fight back to claim the set at an even tighter 6-7 (5-7).

In the third set, Sinner gave it everything he's got and used both his physical and mental abilities to get past his decorated opponent. After the match, he spoke about how important it was for him to win against someone who has won the most number of Grand Slam titles in history.

"I think I was really brave and intelligent in important moments. We both played really well, it was a high-level match," said Sinner, who is currently ranked number four in the world.

He added: "It was a tactical match and I managed to win so I'm really, really happy."

Despite his loss, Djokovic can still qualify for the semi-finals if he defeats Polish player Hubert Hurkacz, who joined the tournament after Stefanos Tsitsipas was forced to pull out due to a back injury.

Sinner, meanwhile, will be up against Holger Rune in his third group stage match,

Tsitsipas disappoints the crowd and himself

Greek star Tsitsipas was initially part of the draw and had been playing a match against Rune before making the decision to withdraw. He took the opportunity to speak to a doctor during the changeover while he was down 1-2 in the first set. After a short discussion, the 25-year-old decided to pull out of the competition, leading to some jeers from the crowd.

"It kills me not to be able to finish this tournament," he said.

"I'm really gutted that I wasn't able to finish the match. Unfortunately, I felt terrible on the court. I did what I could do in the best possible way to be ready and fit for this match, but it didn't work out for me," added the world number six.

Meanwhile, Rune also felt that it was "unfortunate" that his opponent had to withdraw from the match. However, he said that even he noticed that Tsitsipas was struggling to serve properly. "I knew something was off," he said.

Djokovic has had a challenging tournament

In his opening match at the Nitto ATP finals, Djokovic also displayed some chinks in his armour against Rune. He had to fight hard to win in three sets, 7-6(4) 6-7(1) 6-3, but in the process, the Serb smashed two rackets out of sheer frustration.

The youngster from Denmark dropped the first set but managed to fight back to force a decider. Djokovic became visibly upset after dropping his serve early in the third set, which led to a massacre of the equipment.

In the end he managed to get his head back in the game to clinch the victory, which ensured that he would finish the year as world number one.