Individually, the 29-year-old’s 30th Masters title extended his hold on that record to two over Nadal (28), and six over Federer (24). No man has won as many Masters 1000 titles as the World No.1 Djokovic, and he now stretches his Masters title lead over second-placed Rafael Nadal by 2 titles with this victory. He’s been phenomenal all year, despite that one hiccup, with seven titles after defeating Nishikori.
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Despite struggling earlier in the week, the world number one quickly found the elite return game that has separated him from the rest of top players. But he soldiered through, getting past hot-hitting Frenchman Gael Monfils, as well.
But Djokovic showed his class with the set on the line, forcing deuce at 5-5 to break Nishikori for a third time.
Neither Djokovic nor Nishikori have taken the Zika way out of the Olympics.
Facing Monfils, victor in Washington the prior week and conqueror of Canada’s Milos Raonic in the Rogers Cup quarters, Djokovic played the type of tennis that won him 12 grand slams. The stadium was almost full on the windy, overcast afternoon, a relief to scorching heat in which they’d played all week in Toronto. After an error from Nishikori’s forehand side, Djokovic would earn the break to go up 2-1.
The Japanese player recorded his fourth straight Memphis title in February for his 11th ATP Tour victory, but he can not seem to solve the world’s top player and has now lost nine straight times to Djokovic.
In a tight first set, eight breaks of serve were exchanged before the Romanian waltzed through the tiebreak 7-2. Novak Djokovic also got the only breaker of the set, breaking Nishikori once in his two opportunities.
Midway through the set, Nishikori seemed to seize the reins. He entertained the Centre Court crowd – that was primarily pro the Serbian – both with his breath-taking shots and his on-court showmanship, most obviously when he pretended his racket was a violin during a night match against tour veteran Radek Stepanek. Dodig and Soares take the Toronto crown with a 6-4, 6-4 sweep Murray and Soares in their first final appearance since winning the Melbourne crown in January.
Djokovic, a 12-time Grand Slam champion, has won nine of 11 matches against Nishikori. “I was hitting some good first serves, but he was making returns deep”.
Earlier, Nishikori defeated Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka 7-6 (6), 6-1 to advance to the final. He refused to allow Nishikori to push a third set. “I’m going to try to extract that positivity out of that huge attention and energy that will be directed into the Olympic Games and hopefully put myself in a position to battle for a medal”, he said. It can happen, you know.
The victory for Djokovic marks the 18th straight Masters 1000 event title captured by one of the Big 4 players.
Djokovic entered the Rogers Cup leading the ATP money list with $8,476,566.
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“The overall sensation (of Rio) is not going to be the same as the other tournaments, because it’s Olympic Games”, he said.
