Jannik Sinner, after three hours of pandemonium, hammered his way past Novak Djokovic for the first time

Italy officially entered the chat at the ATP Finals on Tuesday.

As Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner warmed up before their round-robin showdown in Turin, the crowd sang and roared and chanted and generally went berserk like they were watching a football match.

When play began, thousands of Sinner partisans cheered Djokovic’s faults and double faults, whistled when he questioned line calls (even when he was right), and booed when he told them, with a sarcastic flap of his arms, to make more noise. They chanted “Jan-neek!” before big points, let out erroneous shrieks of joy a split-second before Sinner’s close misses were called out, and finished with a deafening “Olé, olé, olé!” when it was all over.

If you watched any of Djokovic’s contentious run in Bercy earlier this month, where he defied a hostile French crowd all the way to the title, you might guess that he found a way to win this match, too. There were moments where it looked like he would: When he came up with a forehand winner and a service winner to steal the second-set tiebreaker, 7-5; when he stopped Sinner’s momentum cold and came back from 2-4 down in the third; when he reached 15-30 on Sinner’s serve at 5-5 in the third.

Djokovic had won 19 straight matches dating back to Wimbledon, but this time he finally came up just a little short, and ran into an opponent who didn’t. After three hours and nine minutes of pandemonium, Italian-style, Sinner rewarded his fans’ efforts with his first win over Djokovic in four tries, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (2), and ran his record to 2-0 this week.

The court in Turin is fast, and this was fast-court tennis at its finest. Serves were the first weapon of choice—Sinner hit 20 aces, Djokovic 15, and there were just three breaks over three hours. When rallies did start, each guy looked for a forehand he could pull the trigger on as soon as possible, and each guy hit a bigger ball than normal. Despite the extra risk, Djokovic finished with 46 winners and 14 errors, Sinner with 37 and 11. Djokovic was also the more aggressive and successful net rusher, going 21 of 31 there.

At the end of the first set, though, Djokovic rushed the net two times too many. Serving at 5-5, 40-0, seemingly cruising to another hold, he served and volleyed. Sinner hit a hard backhand return, Djokovic let it go, and it landed on the baseline. At 40-15, Djokovic served and volleyed again, and again was passed. On the next point, Sinner leveled at deuce with a swing-volley winner. Djokovic, rattled, double-faulted to set up a break point. Sinner, with the fans at his back, converted with a massive crosscourt backhand.

If Djokovic was too aggressive—and maybe a little too casual—at the end of the first set, he was too conservative at the end of the third. With Sinner serving at 5-5, he reached 15-30, but gave the next point away with a loose backhand. Then, down 0-2 in the deciding tiebreaker, Djokovic came in on a way-too-short backhand approach was deservedly passed. The crowd was on its feet, and Sinner was on his way.

Djokovic recognized what went wrong

“I thought in the important points, he was going for it, he was more courageous,” Djokovic said. “…I wasn’t aggressive enough, I wasn’t decisive enough. I gave him the opportunity to take the control over the points. At 5-all in the third set, 15-30, second serve, I was in the rally and should have stepped in, and I didn’t and he did.

“He just played a fantastic match.”

Djokovic is right: Sinner took his chances, and saved his best for last. In fact, his performance in the third-set tiebreaker had a Djokovic-esque quality to it. He took a 120-m.p.h. serve and fired an unplayable return back. He snapped off a crosscourt forehand pass winner. He found an extreme forehand angle that sent Djokovic scrambling far out of court. And he didn’t miss a shot until he was up 6-1.

“I feel that I’m a little bit more confident in certain moments in a match,” Sinner said. “I think I was really brave and intelligent in important moments, especially in the third set.

“That was a really high-level match.”

The education of Jannik Sinner in 2023 continues. He has won his first Masters 1000 title, he has beaten Daniil Medvedev for the first time, he has cracked the Top 5. Now he has his first win over Djokovic. As Sinner says, he’s getting braver, and better, with each passing match. His ceiling still seems to be a long way up.