Italian qualifier Lorenzo Sonego produced one of the biggest upsets of the season by stunning top seed Djokovic 6-2,6-1 in the quarterfinals of the Vienna Open and registered the most cherished victory of his professional career so far.
The Italian was ecstatic post the game and had this to say - "For sure it's the best victory of my life. Novak is the best in the world. Today I played so, so good," Sonego said in his on-court interview. "It's unbelievable. It's amazing."
The 25-year-old, who made it to the main draw of the ATP 500 Series event in Austria as a 'lucky loser' replacing Argentine Diego Schwartzman, has been playing the best tennis of his career by not even losing a single set.
Sonego raised the bar of his game to another level against Djokovic as he has had not won a set in three previous matches against Top 10 opponents. However, the Italian came out all guns blazing in the quarterfinals to become the first lucky loser to defeat Djokovic (1-12).
"I was focussed on my tennis. Today I played good. I served so good, I returned good and I played the best tennis and moved so good the ball," Sonego said. "I like it here, I like the conditions. It's so fast for my serve. All good today."
Djokovic who has already secured the year-end number one spot on the ATP Singles rankings charts said that he knew that he had put himself on pole position to finish at the top for yet another season post stringing together a spree of titles including the Australian Open.
The Serb admitted that he did not play his best tennis against the Italian qualifier and is already looking forward to the season-ending ATP Finals at London.