It’s Championship Sunday in Paris, with singles and doubles champions to be decided.
Novak Djokovic is playing for his record-extending seventh title in Bercy, as well as his record-extending 40th Masters 1000 title, while Grigor Dimitrov vies for just his second career Masters title.
Novak Djokovic (1) vs. Grigor Dimitrov – Not Before 3:00pm on Court Central in Paris
Djokovic is now 50-5 on the year, and on a 17-match win streak. He has not lost a match since the painful five-set loss in the Wimbledon final to Carlos Alcaraz. This week, Novak has survived three consecutive three-setters across the last three days, against Tallon Griekspoor, Holger Rune, and Andrey Rublev. And he’s been battling a stomach issue throughout the week, so he’ll certainly be less than 100% for Sunday’s championship match.
Dimitrov has already played four three-setters this week, which includes victories over three seeded players (Medvedev, Hurkacz, Tsitsipas), so he’s also spent a lot of time on court. He played an excellent third-set tiebreak to take out Tsitsipas in Saturday’s semifinals. That was a second consecutive Masters 1000 semifinal appearance for Grigor, who has now reached only his second Masters-level final in his 92nd Masters appearance. It was six years ago when he claimed his only Masters title in Cincinnati, and astonishingly, it was also six years ago when he won his last ATP title, which was at the ATP Finals.
This is the 13th career meeting between these veterans, in a one-sided history that dates back to 2012. Djokovic is 11-1 against Dimitrov, with Grigor’s only victory coming 10 years ago on clay in Madrid. On hard courts, Novak leads 7-0, and has taken their last seven sets played on this surface.
Despite his current physical condition, Djokovic is still the favorite on Sunday. He is 96-40 in ATP finals, and has won 10 of his last 12. Dimitrov has his aforementioned title dry spell to overcome, and is just 8-8 lifetime in finals, having lost his last two. Plus, Novak will be extra motivated to prevail, as it would put him 1,490 points ahead of Alcaraz in the race for the year-end No.1, making his lead all but insurmountable.
Other Notable Matches on Sunday:
Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden (3) vs. Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin (7) – This is the doubles championship match, to be played at 12:30pm local time. Bopanna and Ebden have now reached the final in their last three events, dating back to the US Open. Gonzalez and Roger-Vasellin are on an eight-match win streak, after winning the title a week ago in Basel.
Sunday’s full Order of Play for the ATP Paris Masters is here.
