Novak Djokovic missed the opportunity to claim the 100th title of his stellar career as Jannik Sinner won a high-quality Shanghai Masters final on Sunday.
World number one Sinner, 23, continued his dominant form this season with a 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 victory over the 37-year-old Serb.
Djokovic was aiming to become only the third man – after Jimmy Connors (109) and the watching Roger Federer (103) – to chalk up a ton of titles.
“I have got to keep striving to make it happen somewhere in the near future,” said 24-time major champion Djokovic, whose only title this year has been the Olympic gold which had been eluding him.
“It’s not a live-or-die type of goal for me, I think I’ve achieved all of my biggest goals in career.
“Right now it’s really about Slams and about seeing how far I can kind of push the bar for myself.”
Sinner, who continues to have a doping case lingering in the background despite being initially cleared of wrongdoing, played impeccably to pick up his seventh title of a remarkable year.
The Italian, whose successes have included the Australian Open and US Open, has won 65 of his 71 matches in 2024.
The carrot of the century had been providing extra motivation for Djokovic in Shanghai.
So too was the opportunity to show the younger generation that he still has the quality and durability to beat them to the biggest prizes.
However, a couple of lapses from the four-time Shanghai champion at key moments proved costly in Sunday’s final and allowed Sinner to edge the most critical points.
Despite the defeat, Djokovic has plenty of positives to take from a tournament where he produced some of his best tennis of the year.
“I still think that I played pretty good, so it gives me reason to believe that I can still play with these guys that are best in the world,” added Djokovic.
Losing to Sinner for the third consecutive time, though, is a telling statistic as the veteran aims to keep pushing the next generation led by Sinner and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz.
“It’s tough to tell you the secret [to beating Djokovic] because he doesn’t have any weaknesses,” Sinner said.
BBC Sport
