Sinner dominated this critical area against Djokovic in Shanghai...

pThe start of the point was not the problem for a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/novak-djokovic/d643/overview'Novak Djokovic/a. It was the end. /ppa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jannik-sinner/s0ag/overview'Jannik Sinner/a defeated Djokovic 7-6(4), 6-3 in the final of the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/shanghai/5014/overview'Rolex Shanghai Masters/a on Sunday by winning just five more points (65-60) overall than the Serbian. In a match that showcased parity all over the stats sheet, the Italian dominated one critical area mdash; the ability to finish points off with winners. /ppstrongWinners: Sinnerbr //strong- Aces = 9br /

- Forehand = 6br /

- Backhand = 4br /

- Volleys = 4br /

- Total = 23/ppstrongWinners: Djokovicbr //strong- Aces = 4br /

- Forehand = 4br /

- Backhand = 1br /

- Volleys = 3br /

- Total = 12/pblockquote class="twitter-tweet"p lang="en" dir="ltr"Your 2024 Men's Singles Champion in Shanghai ????a href="https://twitter.com/janniksin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@janniksin/a | a href="https://twitter.com/SH_RolexMasters?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@SH_RolexMasters/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RolexShanghaiMasters?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#RolexShanghaiMasters/a a href="https://t.co/hASdvUH1GS"pic.twitter.com/hASdvUH1GS/a/pmdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1845433021639340103?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"October 13, 2024/a/blockquotescript async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/scriptpSinner clubbed 23 winners to Djokovicrsquo;s 12. There was no other match stat where such a gap between the two players existed. Both committed 23 unforced errors for the match. Both put 82 per cent of their backhands in play. Djokovic actually put slightly more forehands in the court (86% to 84%) and hit them harder (81 mph to 79 mph) on average throughout the final. /ppBut when it came time to finish off the good work building the point, it was Sinner who proved to be twice as good as Djokovic. When isolating baseline points, Sinner collected 10 winners to just five for Djokovic. The Serbian won the battle of longer rallies of nine shots or longer by eight points to six. It proved inconsequential to the final outcome in Shanghai. When Sinner needed to end the point, his movement, shot selection and court position proved superior to the former No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings./ppnbsp;/pdiv style="position: relative; display: block; max-width: 100%;"div style="padding-top: 56.25%;"iframe src="https://players.brightcove.net/6057277721001/8gZSNwgH_default/index.html?videoId=6363200173112" allow="encrypted-media" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; right: 0px; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%;"/iframe/div/divpOne micro-battle that highlighted the strategic advantage Sinner enjoyed in the match can be seen with the first shot hit after the serve, commonly known as Serve +1. /ppstrongTotal Serve +1 Forehandsbr //strong- Sinner = 62% (28/45)br /

- Djokovic = 42% (15/36)/ppstrongSinner Serve +1 Groundstrokes Wonbr //strong-nbsp;Forehand = 61% (17/28)br /

- Backhand = 53% (9/17)/ppstrongDjokovic Serve +1 Groundstrokes Wonbr //strong- Forehand = 53% (8/15)br /

- Backhand = 52% (11/21)/p[ATP APP]pSinner dominated with Serve +1 forehands in this match, hitting this shot 62 per cent of the time. Djokovic struggled mightily to find his Serve +1 forehand, only hitting it 42 per cent of the time. Sinner won 61 per cent of his Serve +1 forehand points, while Djokovic was only at 53 per cent. This had a negative flow-on effect for the rest of the point for the Serbian. Too many Serve +1 backhands equals too much baseline parity in Djokovicrsquo;s service games. That makes it increasingly more challenging for the Serbian to manufacture winners at the end of the point. /ppDjokovic also turned his attention to the front of the court to apply pressure to Sinner, but this turned out to be one of the rare matches in which Djokovic was not able to build a winning margin at the net. He only won 45% (5/11) points coming forward, while Sinner collected a tidy five of six points won. /ppIt is almost 12 months since Djokovic won his last ATP Tour title at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/nitto-atp-finals/605/overview'Nitto ATP Finals/a in Turin last November. At 37 years of age, the recent a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/paris/96/2024/results'Paris Olympics/a gold medalist Djokovic is fast approaching the twilight of his career. This match identifies where his younger opponents will forge an advantage against him. /ppItrsquo;s not in building the point. Itrsquo;s in finishing it./pp[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p