Novak Djokovic awarded year-end No. 1 title in Turin; meets Zlatan Ibrahimovic post match

Novak Djokovic was awarded the year-end ATP Tour No. 1 trophy by FedEx in Turin on November 15. The top award came after the ace tennis player’s opening win at the Nitto ATP Finals against Norway’s Casper Ruud. This is the seventh time the Serbian has been awarded the honour. Following the award win, Djokovic met with football superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who flew into Turin to meet him.

Djokovic surpassed Pete Sampras for the most year-end No. 1 finishes in history after he won his seventh title on Monday. Previously, Djokovic had also won the award in 2011-12, ’14-15, ’18 and ’20. The World No. 1 began his ATP Final campaign on a positive note as he defeated eighth-seed Casper Ruud 7-6(4), 6-2 taking him closer to a record, equalling six ATP Finals titles. Djokovic looks to take over former World No. 1 Roger Federer, who holds the record for the most ATP Finals titles, having lifted six trophies.

Djokovic meets Ibrahimovic

Doubling the joy of winning over Casper Ruud and being awarded the year-end ATP Tour No. 1 trophy by FedEx, Djokovic also met his good friend and footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic in Turin. The pair, who met after the event shook hands and chatted at the Pala Alpitour. The duo took photos and their videos together are now doing rounds on the internet.

Ibrahimovic and Djokovic were seen laughing together before they listened to music. The Serbian was seen singing for his friend and dancing with joy, while the Swede clapped along. The video of the duo together was shared by the official social media handle of ATP Tour with the images of a fox and a lion representing the two stars’ nicknames. Following the meeting, Ibrahimovic stayed back at the court to watch third-seeded Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas face Russian Andrey Rublev in Green Group.

Novak Djokovic vs Casper Ruud

Djokovic beat Casper Ruud 7-6 (4), 6-2 on Monday. With the win, the Serbian opened his campaign at the ATP Finals on a positive note. The win comes as a major one for Djokovic after his loss to Daniil Medvedev in the US. Open finals.

Ruud, a first-time qualifier, broke serve in the opening game which saw Djokovic fall to the court. However, Djokovic managed to pick up his racket and hit a weak reply only for Ruud to finish the point. A double-fault from Ruud handed Djokovic the break back and evened the first set at 3-3. Following this, the Serbian went on a strong run to turn the game in his favour.

Novak Djokovic stats in 2021

While Novak Djokovic may have failed to win his 21st Grand Slam title, he still boasts of an incredible record. The Serbian tennis star ended up surpassing his long-time rival Roger Federer's record of the most wins as World No. 1 in the ATP rankings. Djokovic surpassed Federer's record of 417 wins as the World No. 1 player in ATP rankings. The 34-year-old now has 418 wins as the world's top-ranked tennis player.

Coming to Novak Djokovic records in 2021, the Serbian star, following his win at Paris Masters, surpassed Rafael Nadal in the list of most Masters 1000 titles. Rafael Nadal has won 36 1000 Masters titles to date, while the win at the Paris Masters event took Novak Djokovic's tally to 37. Roger Federer is third on the list with 28 titles.

(Image: @atptour/@DjokerNole/Twitter)