Novak Djokovic will still become No . 1 in the world on Monday, but he won’t head to the Nitto ATP Finals with a 22-match winning streak or a Paris title. Instead, it was Karen Khachanov who triumphed at the Rolex Paris Masters with a 7-5, 6-4 upset of Djokovic on Sunday afternoon.
Surprisingly, Khachanov mostly controlled the match from start to finish aside from going down a break early in the first set. The 22-year-old Russian broke right back for 2-3 and earned another crucial scalp of the Djokovic serve at 5-5. After serving out the opener, Khachanov again got the best of Djokovic’s serve early in the second and from there it was smooth sailing. This tournament’s most recent unexpected champion, who was unseeded, wrapped up the proceedings while displaying no semblance of nerves during a clinching hold at 5-4.
Khachanov fired nine aces and served at 76 percent. In the return game, he feasted on Djokovic’s second delivery by winning exactly half of those points.
Highlights:
“One thing that with Novak you cannot just go to the net because he has unbelievable passing shots,” Khachanov commented. “You have to really prepare your coming through. You have to really sort out the right shots when you can step in and go to the net.
“So of course the best scenario if I’m hitting left-right and I’m coming to the net with a shorter ball, sometimes it was not possible, but sometimes I did it really well. But in general my game is aggressive and I have to try to step in more and to play the way I played, actually.”
“I want to talk about how well he played all week,” said Djokovic, deflecting attention away from his somewhat listless performance following a 7-6(6), 5-7, 7-6(3) three-hour thriller against Roger Federer in the semifinals. “He absolutely deserved to win the match today. So all the credit to him. He deserves it. He’s a young player up and coming. But already an established player, a top player. And he showed great quality today and he showed why we’re going to see a lot of him in the future.
“I’m satisfied of course and I’m going to be No. 1 tomorrow, officially. What more can I ask for? I mean, I won 20-plus matches in a row and had a most amazing last five months of the year.”
He just didn’t have enough left in the tank for Khachanov.
“It means the world to me,” the world No. 18 assured. “I couldn’t be happier to finish the season like this.”
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calm down, Karen!
Djokovic had no chance at mounting a comeback. He was comprehensively outdone by his, younger and more powerful, clone. http://www.138mph.com/atp-tennis-karen-khachanov-outgunned-novak-djokovic-from-the-baseline-at-the-paris-masters-1000/