1 Response to tokyo04novak_dent

1. Voo de Mar says:

   July 30, 2026 at 6:12 pm

   Points won by each set: | 41-44, 28-16, 31-23 |
   Unreturned serves:
   13 % Novak – 10 of 76
   23 % Dent – 25 of 107

   Novak [28] lied on his back after winning the championship point – it’s the most prestigious title of his career (among seven), at the time it was the Championship Series, so an equivalent of the ATP 500. Dent [55] took the opener in his style, despite losing his serve twice with six double faults [a bit bizarre for someone who had one of the fastest serves at the time; it was quite common for the last pure serve-and-volleyer to win sets 7-5 or 7-6 being broken twice due to his amazingly irregular game]. In the following two sets the Czech didn’t have any problem to hold eight times, the deciding/last break he got at 2:1 when Dent’s BH volley missed the sideline not by much. Prior to that encounter, Dent had a prefect 4-0 record in the ATP finals. “I felt great the whole week,” Novak said. “I beat some very good players here. I was able to relax as the final went on, and picked up some confidence in the second and third sets.” Novak had an opportunity to claim the doubles title as well, but retired in the first set feeling abdominal pain.

   Novak’s route to his 6th title:
   2 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-5, 6-2
   3 Ricardo Mello 6-1, 6-2
   Q Paradorn Srichaphan 6-4, 6-4
   S Lleyton Hewitt 6-4, 4-6, 6-2
   W Taylor Dent 5-7, 6-1, 6-3
   

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