Djokovic Dominates Davydenko to Win Tennis Masters Cup

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic ended the year as he began it by convincingly winning the Tennis Masters Cup over Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko 6—1, 7—5 on Sunday in Shanghai, China.
Djokovic Dominates Davydenko to Win Tennis Masters Cup
DOMINANT PERFORMANCE: Serbia’s Novak Djokovic was never in any danger as he took the Tennis Masters Cup. (China Photos/Getty Images)
Rahul Vaidyanath
11/16/2008
Updated:
11/16/2008
<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/djokovic_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/djokovic_medium.jpg" alt="DOMINANT PERFORMANCE: Serbia's Novak Djokovic was never in any danger as he took the Tennis Masters Cup. (China Photos/Getty Images)" title="DOMINANT PERFORMANCE: Serbia's Novak Djokovic was never in any danger as he took the Tennis Masters Cup. (China Photos/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-137929"/></a>
DOMINANT PERFORMANCE: Serbia's Novak Djokovic was never in any danger as he took the Tennis Masters Cup. (China Photos/Getty Images)
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic ended the year as he began it by convincingly winning the Tennis Masters Cup over Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko 6–1, 7–5 on Sunday in Shanghai, China.

Djokovic thus captured the “fifth grand slam” of the season after capturing the first one in Australia back in January.

The Tennis Masters Cup features the top eight men in the world playing in two round-robin groups of four. Djokovic was the second ranked player in the field after Spain’s Rafael Nadal pulled out with a knee injury.

Last year, Djokovic did very poorly at the Tennis Masters Cup, failing to win a set.

This year, he won his round-robin group and beat France’s Gilles Simon 4–6, 6–3, 7–5, in one of Saturday’s semifinals. In the other semi, Davydenko pulled off the upset by beating Britain’s Andy Murray 7–5, 6–2.

Djokovic and Davydenko had only met once previously—earlier this year in Davis Cup, Davydenko won.

Djokovic was able to impose himself early in the match as Davydenko’s first serve percentage sagged. Davydenko would only get 47 percent of his first serves in during the match. Djokovic broke Davydenko twice in the first set for an easy 6–1 lead.

Early in the second set, Davydenko attempted to take charge of the net as he was losing the baseline battle. The Russian was broken at 1–1 as he hit an overhead smash wide and dumped a backhand volley into the net all in one game. Djokovic jumped in the air and pumped his fist as if knowing that break was all he needed to win.

Djokovic was definitely in the zone as Davydenko had the look of a beaten man. Davydenko hadn’t performed well in the grand slams this year; never making it past the fourth round. He wasn’t able to play his best tennis when it really counted.

Djokovic was running every ball down and Davydenko had to practically hit the perfect shot to win a point. However, Djokovic tightened up as he served for the match at 5–4.

He uncharacteristically made two unforced errors to go down 15–40 and then clapped sarcastically at the crowd before double-faulting to give Davydenko the break.

But Djokovic bounced back and played an awesome game to break for a 6–5 lead. He would then serve out the match uneventfully.

A telling statistic from this match, in addition to Davydenko’s poor first serve percentage, is that Davydenko only won 37 percent of points on his second serve while Djokovic won 67 percent on his second serve.

“Today, I was in control of the match, playing all the shots I needed to play,” said Djokovic after the match.

“It’s the biggest success in my career. Certainly I can compare it to the Australian Open win.

“The way I started the year is the way I ended it.”

Djokovic will finish the year ranked third, only two points behind Roger Federer.
 
Serbia will also celebrate Nenad Zimonjic’s achievement of winning the Tennis Masters Cup doubles title. He teamed with Canada’s Daniel Nestor, who was born in Yugoslavia, as they beat Americans Bob and Mike Bryan 7–6, 6–2. Zimonjic and Nestor clinched the number one rank in doubles.
Rahul Vaidyanath is a journalist with The Epoch Times in Ottawa. His areas of expertise include the economy, financial markets, China, and national defence and security. He has worked for the Bank of Canada, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., and investment banks in Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles.
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