Throughout his glorious career, Novak Djokovic became the ultimate comeback king, but not on Saturday in a crucial Davis Cup rubber.
The Serbian would have despised playing the same opponent for the third time in as many weeks. The man on the opposite side of the net was Jannik Sinner who faced Djokovic twice at the ATP Finals this past week in Turin. Sinner won the battle there but lost the war.
But this time, it was much more than winning an ATP title. It was a chance to cement their legacies for their respective countries at the oldest team competition in tennis. Djokovic has made a habit of winning tennis matches from match point down, but he was given a taste of his own medicine by Sinner.
The Italian became just the fourth player to save match points and beat Djokovic. And crucially, he kept his country alive in the semifinal tie which will be decided in doubles. After trading the first two sets by a similar score of 6-2, the final set was edge-of-the-seat stuff.
Djokovic and Sinner traded hellfire from the baseline. Every error was greeted by groans from one side and cheers from the other. After a thrilling battle, Djokovic looked the likelier to break through and that proved to be the case when he manufactured three successive break points at 5-5.
Unfortunately for the Serb, he couldn't take any, the first miss perhaps the most disappointing as he couldn't do anything with the next two. Eventually, Sinner would hold serve and put pressure on Djokovic who was broken to 15 in the next game to cede the match.
This is the first time since 2018 (Queen's final) in which Djokovic lost a match while holding at least one match point. That day, Marin Cilic denied him firing an ace at 4-5 down in the second set. There are other two instances in which he endured the same agony.
One was in Madrid in 2009 in that lungbusting semifinal against Rafael Nadal. He spurned three match points and the first time it all happened was in 2007 in Rotterdam where he also squandered three match points against Mikhail Youzhny.
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