ASTANA/STARNBERG, October 9, 2022
Novak Djokovic secured his ninth consecutive match victory to win the third edition of the Astana Open. The No. 4 seed of the ATP 500 hard-court event defeated third-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday afternoon.
Djokovic, champion of last week’s inaugural Tel Aviv Open, didn’t face a break point and capitalized on two of his own five break-point chances to prevail after one hour and 15 minutes.
UNSTOPPABLE! 🙌
The moment @DjokerNole defeated Tsitsipas to claim the #AstanaOpen and a fourth title of 2022.
✅ Rome
✅ Wimbledon
✅ Tel Aviv
✅ Astana pic.twitter.com/wCVqkAQM0o— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 9, 2022
The 35-year-old Serbian claimed his 90th tour-level title. “I’m just very grateful and blessed to be able to play this well at this stage of my life,” Djokovic said. “You know, 35 is not 25. But I think the experience, probably, in these kinds of matches and big occasions helps as well to approach mentally in the right way.
“I always hoped that I would be going to have a great career. Obviously, didn’t know the amount of finals I was going to play, the amount of tournaments I was going to win, but my intention was always to reach the highest heights in our sport.”
The World No. 7 pocketed $355,310 in prize money as well as 500 ATP Ranking points.
Players with the most ATP Tour titles (Open Era) 🏆
1. Jimmy Connors (109)
2. Roger Federer (103)
3. Ivan Lendl (94)
4. Rafael Nadal (92)
5. Novak Djokovic (90)Where will @DjokerNole finish on this list? pic.twitter.com/YyL95crhcM
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 9, 2022
Mektic/Pavic take doubles title
Earlier in the day, Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic of Croatia captured their fifth tour-level title of the season beating Frenchmen Adrian Mannarino and Fabrice Martin 6-4, 6-2 in 65 minutes.
CHAMPIONS! 🏆@NMektic & Mate Pavic defeat Mannarino & Martin 6-4 6-2 to clinch the #AstanaOpen title pic.twitter.com/JUAaOKQgQo
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 9, 2022
“We are very happy. We played a great match today,” Mektic said. “After the grass-court season, this is our first title and we are very happy and confident and motivated for the end of the season. It is a very strong tournament and we are very happy and proud we came out on top.”
“They started off pretty good serving and hit a couple of return winners,” Pavic said. “We saved a break point and from that moment on I would say that we were the much better team on the court.”
