Djokovic beats Nishikori to win 4th Rogers Cup title
Toronto, Aug 1 (IANS) World No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated Japan’s Kei Nishikori 6-3, 7-5 to win his fourth $4,178,500 Rogers Cup title here.
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.
After a quick 32-minute first set, Djokovic overcame a break point by Nishikori with two breaks of his own in the second set to clinch the title, 1000 ATP points and the $782,525 prize.
The 29-year-old Serb continued his dominance in the sport, holding the No. 1 ranking for 108 consecutive weeks and counting.
During that span, he has won six out of nine Grand Slam events and reached the finals in 14 of his last 15 ATP Masters 1000 Events played, winning 11.
“After Grand Slams, these are the biggest events we have in sport of tennis,” Djokovic told the media following the win.
“I love playing in Masters tournaments throughout my career. 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.
One accolade that Djokovic does not have is an Olympic gold medal. After winning a bronze medal in 2008 and fourth place in 2012, Djokovic is looking to capture a medal of a different colour in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
“Well, it’s the biggest sports event, so to be part of it is already a huge privilege and honour that I will cherish, as I did in Beijing and London Olympic Games,” said the Champion when asked about the the summer Games.
“You get to feel that you’re part of something much larger than just the tennis event. I’m going to try to extract that positivity out of that huge attention and energy and hopefully put myself in a position to battle for a medal,” he added.
The World no.1 has now reached the finals of Rogers Cup five times since debuting in 2007. He surpassed American retired Andre Agassi, UK’s Andy Murray and Nadal, who all have three Rogers Cup titles.
Only Czech Ivan Lendl has more Rogers Cup titles with six, all won in the 1980s.
In the women’s tournament in Montreal, No.5 seed Simona Halep of Romania defeated No.10 seed Madison Keys of US in straight sets (7-6, 6-2).
The 24-year-old Romania captured her first career Rogers Cup title after finishing runner up to Belinda Bencic of Switzerland in last year’s tournament.