2018 ATP final hosted at the O2 Arena, London was the season-ending tennis tournament between world number 1and 31-year-old Serbian Novak Djokovic and world number 5 and 21-year-old German Alexander Zverev. It was a match-up where the odds understandably favored N. Djokovic.
The ATP finals are the 2nd highest tier of annual men's tennis tournament after the 4 Grand Slam tournaments - Wikipedia.
N. Djokovic against A. Zverev was another stern showdown between experience and youthfulness, just like it was in the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 hosted in Paris between Djokovic and Karen Khachanov about 15 days ago, and just like in Paris where Khachanov shocked Djokovic, lightning struck twice as Zverev also stunned Djokovic in London. It seems the young lads are gaining a whole lot of ground on their older counterparts.
The omens were there as Zverev battled past world number 3 and 37-year-old Roger Federer 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) in the semi-finals to book a place in final against Djokovic who had an easy semi-final win of 6-2, 6-2 over South African Kevin Anderson.
The final was not what Djokovic had hope for, as he struggled to imposed himself over Zverev, Zverev was the better player, Powerful serves than Djokovic, fewer errors than Djokovic, and he eventually took both sets 6-4, 6-3 to win the finals.
▪Zverev became the 1st player to beat both Djokovic and Federer in the same ATP final.
▪He is also the first to beat the top two seeds in the semi-finals and final of the event since Andre Agassi in 1990.
▪Zverev is the first German winner since Boris Becker in 1995.
▪He at age 21 years and 6 months became the youngest champion at ATP final since Djokovic in 2008 - BBCSports
Take nothing away from the young German for his win, but Djokovic was the architect of his own defeat, he was far from his usual best. His performance was characterized with unusual weaken serves, I mean he had not lost his serve coming into the final, and just 1 ace compared to Zverev's 10 aces tells the story, coupled with 1,2 unforced error too many.
With Zverev and Khachanov coming through the ranks and breathing down the neck of the big boys, Tennis fans around the world are relishing a tantalizing 2019 tournaments already.
Here is a little highlight of the Djokovic vs Zverev;
Thank you all for stopping by, all comments and criticism are welcome.
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