TORONTO- It’s pick your poison when it comes to facing Novak Djokovic.
The world’s no.1 can beat you from the baseline—he’s the steadiest hitter around, with pinpoint accuracy to boot. He can beat you with his legs—no player, save for perhaps his opponent on Sunday night, covers as much court. He can overpower at times— surprising given his deceptive 170-lb frame. He can beat you with his defence—not just his ability to get to balls, but to convert would-be-winners into quality returns.
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.
On a breezy day at the Aviva Centre in Toronto, Djokovic captured his fourth Rogers Cup title, his seventh tourney win this year. The win brings his record-breaking Masters 1000-level win total to 30 for his career, two more than second-place Rafael Nadal and six more than third-place Roger Federer, neither of which took part in this year’s tournament.
Heading into the 2016 Rogers Cup as much was made about who wasn’t playing than who was. With the Olympics set to kick off next week, three of the world’s top four—Federer, Nadal, and Andy Murray— weren’t part of the draw (on the second day of the tourney Federer announced he would miss the remainder of the season to rehab a knee injury).
But Djokovic’s appearance, his tenth straight at the Rogers Cup, should have erased any concerns over missing out on witnessing greatness.
His inclusion never seemed in doubt. Coming off a shocking 2nd-round loss to American Sam Querry at Wimbledon, the Rogers Cup was an opportunity to get back on track ahead of the Olympics and U.S. Open in August.
“Everything in life happens for a reason,” said Djokovic, sitting back comfortably in a black leather chair during his post-match press conference Sunday. “The fact that I lost in the first week of Wimbledon allowed me to have a week more of the time with my family and quality time off the tennis,” he said adding that he spent his down time “recharging my batteries, and coming in here with plenty of motivation to do well.”
Though he didn’t appear to begin to find his groove until this weekend, Djokovic didn’t drop a set all tournament.
But he came close here in the Finals. After taking the first set in 33 minutes and breaking his opponent early in the second, Nishikori stormed back, taking a 5-4 lead after returning the favour. In the next game Djokovic blanked him, the winning point courtesy a stunning second-serve curveball that hugged the centre service line to tie the set at 5-5.
A snapshot of modern tennis, the two waged war from the baseline, exchanging a series of long rallies that seemed to please the capacity crowd. But Djokovic’s serve proved to be the difference. He only had five aces, but Nishikori had difficulty returning the champ’s salvos as the match progressed. The tournament’s top seed made 76% of his first serves and won 82% of his first-service points and 72% of his service points overall, compared to just 50% for Nishikori.
After surrendering two championship points in the final game, Djokovic powered a serve to Nishikori’s forehand that hit the frame and flew up into the sky and out of the court.
“He was serving really well,” Nishikori said after the match, “I didn’t have many chances for my return game. So I was really feeling the pressure every game. He didn’t give me any free points.”
Given how hard he pushed Djokovic in the final set, Nishikori should head into Rio, where he’ll be representing Japan, with plenty of confidence as he continues to establish himself as one of the most legitimate threats to eventually crack tennis’ top four.
Though he has 11 ATP titles to his name, he’s still searching for his first Masters 1000 championship after failing in three tries. Here’s betting he won’t be searching very long.
But today, like most days on tour these past few years, clearly belonged to Djokovic who, as he’s used to by now, was more than willing to play his part as the face of the tournament
All week long he was generous with his time, stopping to greet fans and sign autographs. He lauded the host city at every opportunity and jumped into the stands immediately after his win. He even got the crowd to hug each other when his match was over (no, seriously).
It was a corny end to an interesting Rogers Cup. There weren’t a pile of thrilling matches, but the tournament generated plenty of interesting moments— 17 year old local Denis Shapovalov’s breakout win over Nick Kyrgios, Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil’s semi-final run in doubles, and Gael Monfil’s statement victory over Milos Raonic, to name three—and was capped off by a stellar performance from the man who could go down as the greatest to have ever played the game.
As Djokovic himself put it: “I couldn’t ask for a better start of the hard court season.”