Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal had to give way to the younger generation to play in the final match of 6 Kings Slam.
On the night of October 17 and early morning of October 18 (Vietnam time), the two semi-finals of the 6 Kings Slam friendly event took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. When Novak Djokovic met Jannik Sinner and Rafael Nadal met Carlos Alcaraz, people called this a “generational battle”.
The end result is confirmation that it is time for the Big Three generation to step back into the background.
In fact, two years after Roger Federer retired, Nadal announced that he would retire at the end of this year, after the Davis Cup finals with the Spanish team.
As for Djokovic, although he has not shown any intention, he has reduced his schedule a lot. And more importantly, the defeats against young players have come more and more often.
Before meeting Sinner in Riyadh, Nole lost to the 23-year-old player in the final of the Shanghai Masters 2024. And in Saudi Arabia, it was another defeat, although not in straight sets.
A similar pattern could be repeated as Sinner took just 27 minutes to win the first set 6-2. However, the former world number 1 rallied in the second set, breaking in the first game.
Even though the Italian player later regained the break, Djokovic still stubbornly dragged the second set into a tie-break. Here, he won impressively with an unbelievable score of 7-0.
Although they had to play a tie-break, set 2 (59 minutes) did not last as long as set 3 (1 hour and 1 minute). The deciding set was dramatic, with the two players breaking each other’s games 5 times.
Sinner broke first in the first game, Djokovic equalized the score right after that. The scenario repeated when the score was 3-3, the 2024 US Open champion broke the game, then let the 37-year-old player equalize 4-4.
However, the next game was another break from Sinner to lead 5-4 and Djokovic could not recover when his opponent had the decisive serve game.
In the second semi-final, the Spanish derby between Alcaraz and Nadal was a one-sided affair. Alcaraz may have been emotional when facing his idol, but at the moment, his physical strength was superior to win 6-3, 6-3 after 1 hour and 18 minutes.
With this result, Sinner and Alcaraz will meet in the final, while Djokovic and Nadal will compete for third place. The two “veterans” will meet again after the Serbian won 2-0 at the 2024 Olympics.
