(Tennis news) While Djokovic lost an epic match in three sets to Sinner, Hurkacz was pulled in to take Stefanos Tsitsipas’ place after the latter withdrew due to a back injury sustained against Holger Rune.

Even Djokovic was limited to standing and cheering some of Sinner’s captivating strokes in front of the boisterous Turin crowd on Tuesday, as the 24-time Grand Slam champion—who was named the top player of the year after his first-round victory over Rune—lost to the emerging Italian at the highest level for the first time.

Djokovic’s three-hour struggle with Rune concluded with the 36-year-old on the right side of a three-set scoreline, but the Serbian was forced to lament a poor start to a winner-take-all tie-breaker against Sinner, who won the titanic match on Tuesday by scores of 7-5 6-7[5] 7-6[2].

The world number one player frequently had no answer to Sinner’s ferocious crosscourt forehands and backhands, even though he had more aces and winners on the day. Djokovic acknowledged that he lacked “courage” in the pivotal moments as Sinner’s sweetly struck passing shots flew past him at the net.

Still, the world number one is comfortably positioned in second place in the section after his first-round victory over Rune, and he is likely to make it to another semifinal if he defeats Hurkacz and Sinner triumphs over Rune.

If the 36-year-old, who entered his encounter against Sinner on a 19-match winning streak, is doomed to consecutive losses in Turin, the only round-robin elimination that may appear on his resume is a fifth round-robin exit; Djokovic has only ever failed to advance past the opening round in 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2019.

In his last Green group match, the six-time champion was supposed to test his mettle against Greek sixth seed Tsitsipas. However, three games into his matchup with Danish talent Rune, the 25-year-old suffered a back injury and lost his spot in the section to number one alternate Hurkacz.

Hurkacz, who just defeated secondary reserve Taylor Fritz 6-3 in a single set exhibition match, will be competing in the year-end championships for the first time when he takes the court on Thursday. Hurkacz qualified directly for the 2021 event as the seventh seed.

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