Mumbai: The day before Novak Djokovic was to take on Jannik Sinner for the ATP Shanghai Masters title on October 13, the Serb made a rather un-Novak-like remark.

“I won’t be a favourite on the court.”

Not something you hear too often from the 24-time Grand Slam champion, more so going into a Masters final on a hard court. But that’s the kind of mental zone in which Jannik Sinner has managed to push the master of the mind over the course of their battles this year so far.

Sinner beat Djokovic in Shanghai in straight sets on that Sunday. Sinner beat Djokovic in Saudi Arabia 6-2, 6-7(0), 6-4 at the Six Kings Slam a few days later on Thursday. That’s the two-time Slam champion defeating the statistical “GOAT” twice over in five days.

And even though little ought to be read into the results at the money-spinning exhibition event in Saudi, it does extend a pattern. Sinner has now beaten Djokovic in their four previous contests and in five of their last six (the Saudi event is not counted in their official ATP records) over the past one year. Sinner has snuck up to get level with Djokovic at 4-4 in their head-to-head count after going down in their first three clashes. The 23-year-old Italian has been all over the 37-year-old Serb this year — in Australia, Shanghai and Saudi.

In the twilight of his career with his fellow Big Three club members moving into the shadows, Djokovic stares at a significant Sinner-sized challenge, especially on hard courts.

Djokovic versus Carlos Alcaraz, which rests at 4-3 in favour of the veteran, is equally fascinating in its clash of styles. But there, aside from Wimbledon where the Spaniard came out on top for two straight years, Djokovic has a clear edge. He has also won three of their past four meetings.

Against Sinner, Djokovic has been largely outplayed the last four times they have crossed paths — all on hard courts. On Thursday in Saudi, Djokovic was evidently the most competitive he has been playing Sinner this year, despite the minor physical issues deep into the season. At the Australian Open semi-final and the Shanghai final, however, the Italian was strikingly smooth against the susceptible Serb on a surface Djokovic tends to sizzle on.

“He’s in form the past 12 months, best player in the world, incredible tennis, just so consistent, and (the) player to beat, no doubt, particularly on hard courts,” Djokovic said of Sinner in Shanghai. “He knows my game; I know his game.”

And with that game, at the moment, Sinner is out-Djokovic-ing Djokovic. It’s not often that the record 10-time Australian Open champion finds a match who can go toe-to-toe and level-to-level with him from the baseline on hard courts. So solid and relentless are Sinner’s groundstrokes that Djokovic’s usually unshakeable defensive skills from the back run the risk of getting breached more frequently than he is used to.

Yet there’s a more striking aspect of Sinner’s evolving game that is besting Djokovic at what he normally does best. Their match in Saudi was the first time in which Djokovic found a way to penetrate Sinner’s serve across all their meetings this season so far. In Australia and Shanghai, Djokovic did not have a single break point opportunity on the Sinner serve. We’re talking about the greatest returner the game has ever seen not having the slightest of opening on the Italian’s first strike (which, by the way, isn’t even the biggest strength of Sinner’s game).

“I think his serve improved a lot,” Djokovic had said in Australia. “Serving bigger now and more precise.”

Sinner has raised his level to such an extent this season that he’s been able to tower over one of the giants of modern tennis, on his preferred surface no less. It’s thrown down the gauntlet to Djokovic to find a way to step up again and get back up there.

Djokovic has faced and mastered such situations in the past, against greater champions in Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. This, though, has come during a quiet season, accompanied by one big bang at the Paris Olympics, for an ageing player who will soon be without his biggest rival — a part of me has left, said Djokovic after Nadal’s retirement announcement — and has little fuel to add to his motivation tank.

Solving the Sinner puzzle on hard courts, perhaps, is where the great who has gobbled up every title there is on offer could still find those drops of fire through the final chapters of his career. The season-ending ATP Tour Finals — where Sinner beat Djokovic in the round robin stage before Djokovic turned the tables in the final last year — in November loom. But the 2025 Australian Open, one senses, is where the next defining moment of this riveting rivalry potentially awaits.