World No 2 Novak Djokovic outplayed Italy’s Matteo Berrettini in his quest for a record-equalling sixth Nitto ATP Finals crown on Sunday. The Serbian thrashed the Italian tennis player 6-2, 6-1 in their opening match at the ATP World Tour Finals.
In the year-ending tournament, the five-time champion took just 64 minutes to drub Berrettini in the Group Bjorn Borg opener.
The 32-year-old Serbian was playing against Berrettini for the first time in his career after the Italian qualified for the season finale for the first time after reaching his career-high ranking of world number eight.
Djokovic is now 440 points behind Rafael Nadal in the battle to become year-end No 1 in the ATP Rankings. The Serbian must reach the final for a chance to be year-end No 1 for a sixth time, which would match the record of Pete Sampras (1993-98).
The 32-year-old will now be facing Dominic Thiem who defeated six-time former champion Roger Federer 7-5, 7-5 in their opening match which lasted for more than 100 minutes.
It was a first opening group match win for Thiem, who is competing at the season finale for the fourth consecutive year.
Federer now faces an uphill task to qualify for the last four of the ATP Finals.
“It’s a normal tournament from here on forward. I’m not allowed to lose anymore,” ATP Tour quoted Federer as saying. “That’s how it is every week of the year for the past 20 years, so from that standpoint, there is nothing new.”
Federer and Djokovic will meet later in the week in a repeat of this year’s Wimbledon final, with two players advancing from the four-man group.