Top-ranked Novak Djokovic beat 10th-seeded Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday night to reach the Rogers Cup final and improve to 12-0 against the Frenchman.
Advertisement
He won back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012, as well as in 2007.
Sunday’s victory was also Djokovic’s 30th ATP Masters title, extending his record over Spain’s Rafael Nadal’s 28 career titles and Switzerland’s Roger Federer’s 24, reports Xinhua.
The 12-time grand slam victor reasserted his control and dominance to break for *6-5 before closing out the match to win his fourth Rogers Cup win in Canada. “I have had plenty of success in this particular category of events, and I’m very grateful for that because I always value them as much as I value Grand Slams” he added. “I’m very grateful for the support of Serbian people who live here and of course Canadian crowd and all the worldwide people coming to watch this tournament”.
Djokovic was the big favourite Friday evening against the fifth-seeded Czech, having won 24 of their previous 26 matches, but he squandered a 5-2 first-set lead and almost lost the tie-breaker when he went down 3-6, reports Efe.
“It was a really good match, I started really well the first game”, Wawrinka said. “I had to change something, I was not getting numerous free points [as I did today]”.
Djokovic will be accompanied in Rio by the other three Rogers Cup semifinalists Stan Wawrinka, Monfils, and Nishikori.
This post was syndicated from 360Nobs.com. “It came at the right time”.
“It was a shame to lose but this was my first time final here in Toronto”, Nishikori told the Canadian crowd.
“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.
Djokovic won the first set on a wild exchange with both players making desperate stabs at the ball that arched high and barely stayed in. “He didn’t give me any free points”.
“I think still Novak is biggest challenge for me to win against him”.
“He raised his level a lot from a couple of days ago”, said Nishikori, who earns $383,690 and 600 tour points for finishing second. “Let’s see how that goes and we will speak about Cincinnati later”, Djokovic said.
In his usual imperious form, Djokovic broke Nishikori for the first time midway through the opening set to go 4-2 up.
Djokovic smelled blood at the first sight of a breakthrough in game six, having hassled Nishikori into netting and sending a crosscourt backhand long.
Advertisement
In the doubles semifinals, Britain’s Jamie Murray and Brazil’s Bruno Soares beat Canada’s Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 6-7 (5), 10-7, and Croatia’s Ivan Dodig and Brazil’s Marcelo Melo topped Romania’s Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau 6-4, 6-3.
