Novak Djokovic Dominates At Shanghai Masters, Continues Assault On No. 1 Ranking • Beats Borna Coric

“Maybe I was Chinese in the past life. I wouldn’t be surprised, to be honest, with the way I feel here. There is something special about this place that makes me feel like at home.” – @DjokerNole, four-time #RolexSHMasters champion. – Photo by @SH_RolexMasters via Twitter.

 

 

By Ricky Dimon

 

Novak Djokovic won the Shanghai Masters, and he won big. Djokovic completed an unbroken run to a record fourth Shanghai title with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Borna Coric on Sunday. The Serb, who held all 47 of his service games throughout the week and did not lose a single set, triumphed after one hour and 36 minutes of play.

 

“This was definitely one of the best service weeks that I’ve had in my career,” Djokovic assured. “I was saying before that I have never played on faster courts here in Shanghai, so this year more than ever I needed a lot of success with the first serves in, and I have had plenty of success with first serves and high per cent of first serves in every match. So obviously that brings me a lot of joy.

 

“It’s phenomenal; I’m very proud of it,” he added, referring to his fourth winners’ trophy in Shanghai. “Obviously the last three, four months have been terrific for me. Not many holes in the game in general, especially this week. Everything worked perfectly.”

 

Coric, who upset Roger Federer in the semis, still climbs to No. 13 in the rankings and 11th in the race to the Nitto ATP Finals.

 

“I thought I was actually playing really well,” the 21-year-old Croat commented. “I’m feeling good on the court. I was not serving particularly well, but that’s also because I think he was returning extremely well. So I was going for a little bit more.

 

“I’m just happy with the whole week. I think it was a really good week for me, from basically me thinking on Monday morning I’m going to fly out on Monday evening after my first match [against Stan Wawrinka] to playing my first Masters 1000 final. It’s awesome. I need to take only positives from this week.”

 

But there are even more positives for Djokovic, who is now a mere 35 points behind Rafael Nadal for the top spot in the 2018 race and 215 points behind the Spaniard for the No. 1 world ranking.

 

“I could not ask for a better scenario,” Djokovic said.” I am very close now to Nadal in the rankings and put myself in a good position for the last period of the year…. I’m really glad I’ve put myself in a position to compete for No. 1 in the world. Maybe four five months ago that was looking a little far from reach.”

 

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on twitter at @TennGrand.