Novak Djokovic played a fifth consecutive match of the week without losing a set or even dropping serve a single time as he beat Borna Coric 6-3, 6-4 in the Shanghai Masters final on Sunday afternoon. Djokovic, who held all 47 of his service games in Shanghai, triumphed after one hour and 36 minutes.
“This was definitely one of the best service weeks that I’ve had in my career,” the Serb said. “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.”
Highlights:
This is record fourth Shanghai title for Djokovic since the tournament began in 2009.
“It’s phenomenal; I’m very proud of it,” the soon-to-be world No. 2 assured. “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’s run included wins over Swiss stars Stan Wawrinka in round one and Roger Federer in the semifinals. The 21-year-old Croat has now defeated every player in the “Big 4” (and “Big 5” counting Wawrinka) except for Djokovic, who is 3-0 in the head-to-head series.
“I thought I was actually playing really well,” Coric assessed. “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.”
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