Big favorite Novak Djokovic won the $15 million ATP Finals in Turin. The Serbian won his seventh title at the season-ending tennis tournament on Sunday with a 6:3,6:3 victory in the final against Italian Jannik Sinner, making him the sole record holder. Djokovic also successfully defended his title from last year. Local hero Sinner won his group match against Djokovic, but was clearly inferior to him in the final.

En route to his 98th final victory on the tour – seven this year – the number one seeded Serb used the only break point in the first set against this year’s winner from Vienna, made virtually no mistakes and also had a successful serve in the second. round. The 36-year-old has won almost everything this year. Only the Wimbledon final was lost against the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz. If Djokovic had won that single match, he would have won the Grand Slam at the US Open in September.

After his victory, Djokovic hugged his two children and celebrated. “It’s a very special moment. It was definitely one of my best seasons. The way Carlos and Jannik played, I had to raise my level,” he said after his gala , with which he beat the Swiss Roger Federer as the final record. the winner let himself go. “I always wanted to perform in front of my kids when they were at an age where they understood what I was doing. I’m so lucky to have two angels like that.”

Sinner won in three sets against Djokovic in the group on Tuesday in a high-level match that lasted more than three hours. Only because the South Tyrolean then beat Denmark’s Holger Rune did Djokovic survive the preliminary round. But there was no sign of gratitude from Djokovic in the final. He taught the tournament number four a lesson. Powerful, dominant, fully focused – sometimes a class difference between the two was noticeable.

After just 38 minutes, Djokovic won the first set. Sinner looked desperately at his team in the stands. In the second round, the world number one immediately achieved another break. The Italian fans tried to encourage Sinner with chants, but with the score at 3-2, the Italian missed two break chances that could have brought him back into the match. Djokovic survived this small phase of weakness and was no longer deterred on the path to the title.

Djokovic and Sinner, 22, could meet again in the final phase of the Davis Cup which will take place in Malaga from Tuesday to Sunday. In the quarter-finals, the Serbs will face Great Britain, deprived of the Scot Andy Murray, while Italy will face the Netherlands.