{"id":206995,"date":"2025-10-17T17:27:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T17:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/206995\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T17:27:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T17:27:17","slug":"novak-djokovic-sums-up-brutal-reality-after-defeat-to-jannik-sinner-he-kicked-my-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/206995\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic sums up brutal reality after defeat to Jannik Sinner: \u2018He kicked my a**\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 jEZjIj\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 jEZjIj\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 jEZjIj\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p>Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/novak-djokovic\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Novak Djokovic<\/a> admitted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/jannik-sinner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jannik Sinner<\/a> \u201ckicked my ass\u201d after a heavy defeat to the World No 2 in the semi-finals of the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Saudi Arabia. <\/p>\n<p>Sinner had won his last five competitive matches against the 24-time grand slam champion, including straight-sets victories in the semi-finals of Roland Garros and Wimbledon this season. <\/p>\n<p>The 38-year-old Djokovic said Sinner and World No 1 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/carlos-alcaraz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> were \u201ctoo good\u201d over best-of-five sets following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/sport\/tennis\/novak-djokovic-us-open-alcaraz-sinner-result-b2821312.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">his semi-final defeat to Alcaraz <\/a>at last month\u2019s US Open. <\/p>\n<p>But Djokovic fared no better over the shorter format in Riyadh, as Sinner produced a masterclass of serving to thrash the Serbian 6-4 6-2 and set up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/sport\/tennis\/alcaraz-sinner-prediction-six-kings-slam-schedule-netflix-b2846888.html\" title=\"When is Alcaraz v Sinner final at Six Kings Slam? Schedule and how to watch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">another final against Alcaraz on Saturday<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SEI270505602.jpeg\"  loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Djokovic was thrashed as Sinner won 6-4 6-2 in their Six Kings Slam semi-final\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE inline-gallery-btn\"\/><\/p>\n<p>open image in gallery<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic was thrashed as Sinner won 6-4 6-2 in their Six Kings Slam semi-final (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic has accepted that Alcaraz and Sinner, who have won the last eight grand slam titles between them, are a level above what he can produce at the age of 38 but said that he would keep trying to find a way to beat them. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cExcuse my language, but it&#8217;s never nice when somebody kicks your ass like this on the court,\u201d Djokovic told the crowd with a laugh, during a rare on-court interview involving the losing player. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it\u2019s definitely is amazing that I&#8217;m still being able to play at a high level, being top-10, top-5. It&#8217;s a good good feeling. I&#8217;m trying my best. I have the body that I have, I&#8217;m grateful for everything that the God has granted me in my life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s been an incredible journey, an amazing career, there&#8217;s so much to celebrate, but I would like it if somebody can trade a younger body with me. That would be nice, just for a year so I can try to keep winning against these guys.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJokes aside, I still have the drive. Obviously I know that it&#8217;s it&#8217;s becoming much more difficult for me to to get a win against Jannik and Carlos particularly. I&#8217;m gonna still keep on challenging them and until it happens, let&#8217;s see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic will return on Saturday for the third-placed match against Taylor Fritz and said the defeat was still \u201cworth it, because the love for the game and the passion for tennis\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>He added to the crowd: \u201cI&#8217;m sorry you couldn&#8217;t see a longer match today, it&#8217;s his fault, not my fault! I tried to intimidate him a little bit at that last game with the 0-15 point, but it didn&#8217;t work.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SEI270505344.jpeg\"  loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Djokovic said he faced a 'runaway train' in Sinner\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE inline-gallery-btn\"\/><\/p>\n<p>open image in gallery<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic said he faced a &#8216;runaway train&#8217; in Sinner (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook, it felt like a runaway train. He was smacking the ball from all corners. I was just trying to hang in there, but he was just too good, so well done to him and good luck in the finals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was then Sinner\u2019s turn to address the crowd, with the 24-year-old starting off by saying: \u201cYou know, I think he said everything, no?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe&#8217;s such a great role model for especially us, the younger generation. Seeing him competing, seeing him practice and training for these moments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s amazing. What he has achieved in his career, it&#8217;s incredible and you know I see him as a real idol. To play against him is such a huge honour and and privilege. Obviously I&#8217;m happy about today, but I&#8217;m also happy to see him around.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SEI270504606.jpeg\"  loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Sinner produced a masterful performance,\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE inline-gallery-btn\"\/><\/p>\n<p>open image in gallery<\/p>\n<p>Sinner produced a masterful performance, (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Sinner produced a near-perfect display, firing 27 winner to just five unforced errors, and dropping just eight points on serve throughout the match. The Italian was particularly pleased with his improvements on serve since the US Open. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, I do feel that way,\u201d Sinner said when asked if it was one of the best serving performances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish it would be every, every time like this, but no we try to, to work on things, we try to get better as a player,\u201d Sinner continued. \u201cYou have days where certain or particular things work very well, so obviously today the serve worked really, really well. We all try to improve, so let&#8217;s see.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe worked a lot in the past month, we&#8217;re serving hours and hours. But if this is the result, I&#8217;m very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SEI270488546.jpeg\"  loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Alcaraz beat Fritz in the other semi-final to join Sinner in the Six Kings Slam final\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE inline-gallery-btn\"\/><\/p>\n<p>open image in gallery<\/p>\n<p>Alcaraz beat Fritz in the other semi-final to join Sinner in the Six Kings Slam final (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>After competing against each other in the finals of Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open this season, Saturday\u2019s Six Kings Slam exhibition will mark <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/sport\/tennis\/alcaraz-sinner-prediction-six-kings-slam-schedule-netflix-b2846888.html\" title=\"When is Alcaraz v Sinner final at Six Kings Slam? Schedule and how to watch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the latest meeting between Sinner and Alcaraz<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Sinner triumphed over Alcaraz in last year\u2019s Six Kings final, and will be out to defend the $6m overall prize, but Alcaraz has had the upper hand in their recent head-to-head. <\/p>\n<p>The World No 1 defeated Sinner in last month\u2019s US Open final to avenge his loss in the Wimbledon final, and has won seven of their last eight official matches on tour. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-206995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}