{"id":252510,"date":"2025-11-09T05:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T05:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/252510\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T05:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T05:23:09","slug":"novak-djokovic-withdraws-from-atp-finals-after-breaking-roger-federer-record-in-incredible-battle-with-lorenzo-musetti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/252510\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic withdraws from ATP Finals after breaking Roger Federer record in ‘incredible battle’ with Lorenzo Musetti"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watch: Djokovic ‘proud’ to prevail in ‘gruelling’ Athens Open final against Musetti<\/p>\n

Video credit: SNTV<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic<\/a> broke Roger Federer<\/a>‘s hard-court wins record after overcoming Lorenzo Musetti in Athens and subsequently decided to withdraw from the upcoming ATP Finals.<\/p>\n

Djokovic won the title on Saturday with a 4-6 6-3 7-5 victory, which had the crowd on the edge of their seats in the Greek capital.<\/p>\n

The Serbian was clearly overjoyed after the match as he ripped off his shirt in celebration, before lapping up the applause of the fans.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old has now won nine of his 10 meetings with Musetti, after the latest milestone in a fantastic career.<\/p>\n

Following the match, it emerged that Djokovic had offered his place to Musetti at the ATP Finals which begin on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the match in his on-court interview, Djokovic said: “An incredible battle. Three hours of a gruelling match, physically.<\/p>\n

\"picture\"<\/p>\n

Highlights: Djokovic edges past Musetti in Athens Open final to claim 101st career title<\/p>\n

Video credit: SNTV<\/p>\n

“It could have been anybody’s match, so congrats to Lorenzo for an amazing performance. I\u2019m just very proud of myself to get through this one.”<\/p>\n

Musetti claimed the first set after breaking Djokovic’s serve in the third game, drawing first blood after 49 minutes.<\/p>\n

The 24-time Grand Slam champion recovered to take the second after a decisive break in the eighth game, before wrapping up the set on his serve.<\/p>\n

A blockbuster decider followed, which included 13 break points and five breaks of serve in a gripping finale.<\/p>\n

Djokovic would ultimately secure his 101st career title and his 72nd on a hard court to break Federer’s Open Era record.<\/p>\n

That defeat came three years ago on home soil at the Serbia Open, where Russia’s Andrey Rublev emerged victorious.<\/p>\n

Musetti initially needed to win on Saturday in order to overtake Felix Auger-Aliassime and seal the final spot at ther ATP Finals in Turin, but now looks set to compete after Djokovic decided to withdraw.<\/p>\n

The Italian was magnanimous in defeat and hailed Djokovic for his immense achievements in the sport.<\/p>\n

He said: “Novak, there are not many words to say about you and your career.<\/p>\n

“You are proving, still at your age, that you can kick us, like me today. Every time I share the court with you, I take it as a lesson, so thanks for that.”<\/p>\n

Musetti will now turn his attention to the prestigious end-of-year showpiece tournament in northern Italy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He faces Taylor Fritz, Carlos Alcaraz and Alex de Minaur in the Jimmy Connors Group, while the Bjorn Borg Group is comprised of Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Ben Shelton and Auger-Aliassime.<\/p>\n

Djokovic already holds the record for the most singles titles at the event with seven – one more than Federer.<\/p>\n

The top two players in each group from the round-robin stage qualify for the knockout rounds.<\/p>\n

Should a player win the trophy without losing a match, then they will amass 1,500 ATP ranking points.<\/p>\n

There is also a \u00a33.87 million prize pot on offer if any player manages to win the tournament undefeated.<\/p>\n

– – –<\/p>\n

Watch and stream top tennis action, including the 2026 Australian Open, live on TNT Sports and discovery+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch: Djokovic ‘proud’ to prevail in ‘gruelling’ Athens Open final against Musetti Video credit: SNTV Novak Djokovic broke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[104109,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-252510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-atp-finals-2025","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252510","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=252510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}