Or, like Sunday’s Rogers Cup Final, he can beat you with his serve, as he demonstrated in straight sets, 6-3 7-5, against world no.6 Kei Nishikori.
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The world No.5 claimed her third WTA title this season but she has made a decision to withdraw from the Olympics, citing fears over the Zika virus.
Days before matches were set to start, tournament director Karl Hale appeared on Toronto’s sports radio station Sportsnet 590, The Fan to assuage fears, telling listeners that Djokovic was “100 per cent” coming.
Monfils gave Djokovic a 4-2 lead in the first set on an embarrassing misplay.
“It’s the biggest event in the history of sport, so to be part of it is already a huge privilege and honour that I will cherish, as I did in Beijing (where he won bronze) and London (where he lost to Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro in the third-place match) Olympic Games”, said Djokovic.
“I had a lot of opportunity that I could have done better, but he won the match and that’s it”.
After clinching his 30th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title, Djokovic immediately started to turn his attention to something more elusive, an Olympic gold medal. However, with third-favored Rafael Nadal questionable and Stan Wawrinka still victory-less against the Top 10 this season, I think Nishikori should be considered more like a solid third favorite behind both Djokovic and Andy Murray. “I hope I can get a title as soon as possible”. Last Sunday, he outlasted big-serving Ivo Karlovic to win the Citi Open in Washington D.C. Then Friday he calmly responded to Raonic’s 230-km/h serves, outpacing the local favourite over two entertaining frames. Dodig and Melo also won 31 of 36 (86%) first serve points compared to 22 of 32 (69%) from their opponents during their one hour and twelve minute finals match. But dig a little deeper into those statistics and another trend emerges. It allowed Djokovic to recharge his batteries, spending time with his family, and beginning the hardcourt season with renewed motivation. By comparison, each of Murray and Federer have won three, while Nadal has one.
“I guess when my coach was speaking last night and this morning, I was listening”, Djokovic, who finished as runner-up to Andy Murray past year in Montreal, said in a televised court-side interview.
“Tomas had a double-fault (on set point) and some errors”. It can happen, you know. I look forward to that.
After an early exit in Wimbledon, the 29-year-old Djokovic has bounced back with another ATP 1000 Masters finals appearance.
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“I know that he loves to take the control of the rallies and just to kind of overpower his opponent from the back of the court”, said Djokovic, who feels his game is centred on the baseline. Once again, he was the last man standing, holding the trophy at the end of the week. “In this tournament it is not working very well, but in general in past couple of years it has served me very well”. He was not ideal in his opener against Gilles Muller, nor in his quarter-final against Tomas Berdych, but by the time he faced Gael Monfils and Nishikori, he was ready.
