Novak Djokovic cruises past Stefanos Tsitsipas in 76 minutes to win Astana Open – his fourth title of the year

Novak Djokovic beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in only 76 minutes at the Astana Open final in Kazakhstan to claim his 90th ATP title.

Djokovic has been in fantastic form following a lengthy break after being blocked from the US Open as a result of his vaccination status, winning two titles in two weeks after his dominant performance at the Tel Aviv Open.

The 6-3 6-4 win means that Djokovic has now officially secured himself a Top 20 spot in the ATP Finals, joining Carlos Alcaraz, Rafael Nadal, Casper Ruud and Tsitsipas.

The loss for Tsitsipas means that his winless run in ATP 500 finals has been extended to nine matches.

The two looked evenly matched early on, but Tsitsipas started showing errors late in the first set and consistently struggled to land his forehand, allowing Djokovic to capitalise and claim a vital break.

The 21-time Grand Slam champion’s serve consistently put Tsitsipas under pressure, and the Greek star could not cope defensively, with Djokovic moving him all over the court.

Despite the 24-year-old falling 4-2 behind in the second set, he did start to mount a commendable comeback putting late pressure on Djokovic, but he could not hold on and the Serbian served out to claim his 16th consecutive victory in competitive singles.

While the on-court interviewer assumed that Djokovic probably never dreamed of winning 90 ATP Tour titles, Djokovic corrected him, saying: “I dared to dream, actually.

“I always hoped that I would be going to have a great career. Obviously, didn’t know the amount of finals I was going to play, the amount of tournaments I was going to win, but my intention was always to reach the highest heights in our sport.

“I’m just very grateful and blessed to be able to play this well at this stage of my life. You know, 35 is not 25. But I think the experience, probably, in these kinds of matches and big occasions helps as well to approach mentally in the right way.”

The champion also confirmed that being away from tennis for three months after his Wimbledon victory allowed him to recover both mentally and physically: “I could not ask for a better restart of the season. I’m super pumped and motivated to end the season as well as I have done these past couple of weeks.”

In the Japan Open, Taylor Fritz saw out two tie-breaks to beat Frances Tiafoe in straight sets in the final in Tokyo.