Jannik Sinner has described Novak Djokovic as a \u201creal idol\u201d as he expressed the respect he has for the tennis icon after defeating him at the 2025 Six Kings Slam.<\/p>\n
The world No 2 claimed a dominant 6-4, 6-2 victory over 24-time major champion Djokovic<\/a> in just over an hour at the lucrative exhibition in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n Sinner<\/a> broke Djokovic<\/a> three times and saved the only two break points he faced late in the second set of the semi-final contest.<\/p>\n The Italian had eased past Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2, 6-3 in his opening match at the event, while Djokovic received a first round bye.<\/p>\n The four-time Grand Slam winner is the reigning Six Kings Slam champion, having triumphed at the inaugural edition of the exhibition last year.<\/p>\n In his on-court interview after defeating Djokovic, Sinner paid tribute to the 38-year-old Serbian.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he said everything,\u201d said the 24-year-old.\u00a0\u201cSuch a great role model for the younger generation.<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing him competing and practising and training for these moments is amazing.<\/p>\n Tim Henman reveals why his admiration for Carlos Alcaraz has gone to the next level<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Why Novak Djokovic may miss the ATP Finals as big schedule move confirmed<\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhat he has achieved in his career is incredible. I see him as a real idol. To play against him is a huge honour and privilege. I\u2019m happy about today but I\u2019m also happy to see him in tournaments and see him around.\u201d<\/p>\n Having lost four of his first five ATP Tour level matches against Djokovic, Sinner now leads the head-to-head 6-4 having won the last five, including semi-finals at the French Open and Wimbledon this year (this is excluding exhibition matches).<\/p>\n Sinner will face his biggest rival Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> in the Six Kings Slam final on Saturday in a rematch of the 2024 championship match. All six participants at the event earn a $1.5million participation fee, but the winner secures an additional $4.5million.<\/p>\n Ahead of his showdown with Alcaraz \u2014 the world No 1 and a six-time major champion \u2014 Sinner said: \u201cI look forward every time we face each other.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s great for us. It\u2019s gonna be a great battle. I\u2019ll try to be as ready as I can.\u00a0It\u2019s obviously a huge honour to play against him again.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to it. I hope you guys do also. We all hope for a great Saturday night.\u201d<\/p>\n Alcaraz saw off world No 4 Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-2 in his semi-final match on Thursday.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Novak Djokovic issues defiant retirement vow as he claims tennis \u2018will be transformed\u2019<\/a> The post Jannik Sinner\u2019s comments on Novak Djokovic speak volumes after Six Kings Slam hammering<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jannik Sinner has described Novak Djokovic as a \u201creal idol\u201d as he expressed the respect he has for the tennis icon after defeating him at the 2025 Six Kings Slam. The world No 2 claimed a dominant 6-4, 6-2 victory over 24-time major champion Djokovic in just over an hour at the lucrative exhibition in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tennis Features<\/h2>\n
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