Novak Djokovic won his 17th consecutive match and captured a second straight title on the Asian Swing by rolling over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-2, 6-4 in the final of the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Sunday. Djokovic, whose current streak also includes titles at the U.S. Open and in Beijing, needed just one hour and 18 minutes to prevail.
Djokovic dropped serve once in the first set but more than made up for that hiccup with three victorious return games.
A more competitive second set saw Tsonga kick things off with four consecutive holds. The Frenchman, however, never had any prayer against his opponent’s serve. In fact, Tsonga won only a single point in five return games. A double-fault by the underdog on break point at 4-4, ad-out proved to be decisive.
Highlights:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2xIYR8gyv4]
“Today the key was to get as many serves back into play to Jo because he has one of the biggest serves in the game,” Djokovic assessed. “He has shown that in the second set, with some break points early in the set. He came up with some aces, some big serves.
“Generally, I felt always in control of the match. I felt like I’ve done everything right. I’ve won many of my service games very comfortably. I didn’t allow him to get into the rhythm, get into the match. Today’s match, and overall the tournament, it’s gone incredibly well for me.”
[tweet https://twitter.com/SHRolexMasters/status/655723508559798272]
The week still went extremely well for Tsonga, who prevailed in consecutive three-setters over Albert Ramos-Vinolas, Kevin Anderson, and Rafael Nadal.
“I’m very satisfied,” the runner-up assured. “To come back at your best level, it’s always a long process. I’m happy today to be back really close to the top 10. Like I said just before, it gave me energy to continue to work hard and try to achieve other good things.”
Tsonga is going to surge six spots to No. 9 in the race to the World Tour Finals. That would put him as the first alternate, which will be especially important if Andy Murray follows through with his threat to skip it and prepare for the Davis Cup final on clay in Belgium.
[polldaddy poll=9133278]
i voted for zero
When do you think he will lose his next match?
And to who?
I think Fed will beat him in Paris or WTF (if his back allows him to play).
Fed is 2-0 against Nole on fast hard courts in Dubai and Cincy this year. Beat him in straights both times. Paris and WTF pretty quick too.
To Rafa in Montecarlo 2016
this is very possible
That’s a loooong time!
Means Nole wins four more Masters, WTF and AO!
Federer Dubai
4 is possible, no?
And Dubai, Doha, 3 masters ( paris, IW, Miami)
Oh it’s gonna be a very looooong winter then.
nope
I think that’s possible. I thought that Fed was the only one who had a real shot at beating Novak in Shanghai. The courts at Paris and WTF obviously suit his game very well. Does he have back problems again? I wasn’t aware of that.
I am not sure how I’m going to vote yet.
No. Just a joke on last year’s WTF Final fiasco.
Oh I am so slow these days! I just got your joke about the WTF fiasco when Fed pulled out to be ready for Davis Cup! 🙂
NNY, just do what I do and vote as often as you like lol.
hawkeye,
LOL! Absolutely!
Oh and I voted for Novak losing 2 matches.
I am glad that you were just joking about Fed. He’s the only one that I can see having a shot against Novak at the upcoming tournaments.
I sure hope that vmk1 is wrong about when Novak will lose. He will need to continue playing well, because he’s got a ton of points to defend next year.
I just keep hoping that Rafa will come out playing really well in 2016. The game needs him. Also, I would like him to add to his considerable resume with some more slam wins. I believe that there’s always one more great run in every champion. I hope next year Rafa does it.
I don’t think he needs to defend all of those points at all. He can drop 4-5000 and still finish No. 1.
Besides, everyone starts the year with the same number of points.
I’ll be watching the Race to London come January. The rankings are too boring ATM.
I hope you are right NNY.
Dont think he’ll finish as no.1 should he lose 4-5000 points. Someone else will pick up those points. A drop of 4 to 5K points may mean a swing of double of those points. Imagine Murray finishes this year with 9000 points and adds another 2-3000 next year for example and he’ll be close to Novak. It may not be Murray but Stan or Fed or even Rafa, who knows. Rafa has plenty of chances to gain points throughout the whole season should he get back to his previous high level come next year.
hawkeye is right. Everybody starts with the same number of points next year i.e. zero in the race. So Rafa has no advantage over Djoko merely because he has so few points to defend. To take an extreme example, if there were 1000 players and you skipped the entire season and started at #1000, you have the advantage of knowing that you have no points to defend! So you can play every match totally relaxed ( if your aim is defending last year’s points!). But if you want to win points, you have to win matches and that holds for everyone, not just Djoko. So the pressure to win is there for anyone who wants to win points.
i followed the first three sentences of this (in which a good point was made). the rest might as well have been written in Gujarati.
I suppose we’re not talking about only the race but how soon someone could threaten the no.1 ranking of Novak. I think the pressure is on Novak to defend his slam and masters titles; if Rafa starts to win important titles meaning hes playing well enough to compete, surely Novak wont want to meet him before the finals so as not to run the risk of winning fewer points should he lose thus affecting his race for year end no.1. The same could be said of Stan too, Novak may not want to meet Stan too soon in the draw at the slams.
The top players certainly hope to win and also to successfully defend as many points as possible to at least keep their rankings if not improve them.
Lucky,
Thank you for this! Well said! 🙂
Not clear what your point is, Lucky. I am sure Djoko wants to win as much as possible and so is the case for every top tennis player. All of them feel the same pressure, the pressure to win matches and no player will feel he can relax simply because he hadn’t played the event the previous year. I remember in 2013 fall season a poster, known for being confused between rolling and YTD ranking points, blithely claimed that Rafa, who was then on a quest for no 1 ranking, did not have to worry about Paris because he hadn’t played it the previous year!
its amazing the percentage of tennis fans who do not understand the points system
Rafa doesnt have any advantage over Novak but Rafa has plenty of chances to win points should he play better than this year.
I remember Rafa said that after Wimbledon this year, he can only gain points as he had nothing to defend. Clearly to be able to defend and also add points matters to these players. They play to win and to get a good ranking in the process; maintaining a good ranking will be important where seeding for thr draws ate concerned.
Lucky,
Again thanks for this. It’s what I was trying to say in an earlier comment here.
Why Gujarati?
why not?
I am surprised ricky even knows there is a language called gujrati?
So am I. So random. :p I understand Gujarati BTW. :p
You mean there is a language called Gujarati? I guess you learn something new every day. 🙂
I think we should all take up Gujarati as a way to learn something new every day.
Meanwhile how awful to read of the claim for spousal support by Ryan Sweeting, from whom Kaley Cuoco – his wife of less than two years, and $1m-per-episode star of The Big Bang Theory – has filed for divorce. According to all the best news sites, she maintains that since they married he became addicted to painkillers for a back problem (attention, Roger) and has done nothing to address his dependency. So sad, as they say.
No kids, and there is a pre-nup, so you have to wonder how much Ryan (net worth $2m in 2013) can cream off Kaley in order to set up his future, poor thing. Tennis players are role models, we keep hearing…
It is true that having no points to defend is not in itself an advantage because the bottom line is winning as has been proved this year with Rafa not able to add that many points in the 2nd half of the year, so far, where he is defending very few points because he hasn’t won any tournaments..
Where it matters is IF he wins tournaments from the beginning of the year, he will move up the 52 weeks rankings in no time and players who won maximum or a load of points who fail to earn those points again this year will move down the rankings quickly.
If it was true that not having points to defend in itself ensured moving up the rankings then the players who performed the worst in one year will automatically move up the rankings the following year, but that it not the case.
I voted for two matches…I believe Novak will lose in Paris and at least one match in WTF…and I honestly believe the 2016 AO trophy will be in Rafa’s hands… 🙂
Hope so about Rafa..but long shot
If Rafa gets his double career slam before Novak gets his career slam, it will shut many mouths for some time.
Also, what if Rafa wins another Olympic Singles Gold? So far Djoker only has a bronze and Fed’s got a silver. One of them will retire without an Olympic Singles Gold Medal.
Of the young guns, who do you think has more potential to soon challenge the top players?
Kyrgios and Tomic once they get their heads fixed…. 🙂
I would say Thiem and kyrgios and coric are the three young guns to challenge the top unless u count nishikori Raonic dimitrov and Tomic as youngsters too.
Nishikori certainly isnt. This isnt 2008.
It’s a simple equation. Play well and the rankings will follow.
In spite of his erractic performance and paltry handful of wins, Rafa played well enough to claw his way up the rankings and clinch his place in the Race – the modest goal he set for himself earlier in the year. He has always been a realist. Unlike so many players who talk about reaching No.1 after a handful of stellar upsets before sinking to their true level.
#WorkInProgress
I like Tomic more than Kyrgios… I wish there were more players in the mix but it’s not easy to be amongst the best, easier said than done.
That’s like saying I like root canal over an ingrown toenail.
#SadState
LOL! This really is just too funny! Also very true! 🙂
Reblogged this on Tennis Abides.
Not liking Tomic or Kygrios but i do see an improvement in Tomic’s attitude and in his tennis. I know both guys have talent, and Tomic does play a bit like Murray, and I feel he has better tennis brain than Kygrios has.
Tomic may be feeling threatened when all the attention now is focused on the new kid on the block and Tomic may be the forgotten old kid now. I feel Tomic is finally waking up and getting more serious with his tennis career, for he certainly doesnt want to be outshone by the new kid Kygrios.
I liked what I saw from him in that QF match vs Novak. I was thinking about Murray playing similarly against Novak at that Rome 2011 SF and was hoping for more or less the same in their SF match. Alas, its not what i hoped for. Tomic even performed better than Murray vs Novak! Tomic’s ranking is heading the right direction, good for him and good for tennis in general, dont want to see another wasted talent.
Among the youngsters, I like Thiem and Alex Zverev, the two most promising IMO.
Zverev vs. Ymer looked real nice today
Lucky: I feel despondent for the future of tennis every time I watch Kyrgios play. I know I am out of touch but I do not go along with the widely held view that tennis needs characters like this: the thought of this oafish, attention seeking egomaniac muscling good players into the ground with sheer brute force is not a prospect I relish 🙁
You’re right about Tomic heading in the right direction. He is maturing and I liked what I saw at Shanghai.
To Thiem and Alex Zverev I would add Bernard Coric to the list of promising youngsters emerging.
Bernard Coric?
Borna Coric (who just lost to Donskoy in Moscow)
Oh hahaha
he’s gonna be good. not sure what’s gotten into him recently. not playing well.
ed,
I agree with you about Kyrgios. I don’t like him, don’t like his game, don’t like his attitude and behavior on court. Of course he’s talented, but that in and of itself is not enough.
I also have to admit to still not being too impressed with Tomic. I know that he’s been playing better recently, but I have never liked his game. I was surprised when Lucky said he reminds her of Murray. I like Murray’s game. I don’t see Tomic as anywhere even close to Murray. Maybe he can get there in time. I don’t feel as strongly negative about him as I do about Kyrgios.
what do you not like about his game?
Tomic’s game is awesome
Yep, never like Kygrios’ attitude, behaved like a spoilt kid. Not only that, I can’t stand his attention seeking, sense of entitlement kind of behaviour. Its as if he thinks hes that talented that he can get a pass behaving like a brute and passing crude remarks about his fellow tennis player. He’s already 20 yet not grown up in his behaviour, Thiem of similar age behaves much better out there.
Ricky,
Tomic is funky and unconventional. I think he just tries to throw off his opponents with his unorthodox game. I am not saying that he doesn’t have a decent game, but I don’t think it’s awesome. Different strokes for different folks! 🙂
its unique in an era of tennis when everyone else is all too similar
we may not like Kyrgios but he has outstanding talent and his serve is huge…honestly, he is still a baby…he may and most likely will change as he matures…I think Australian Tennis Association will be involved in taking care of him…they can’t afford such talent going to waste…
if it was not for Nick’s attitude and attention seeking he would be considered dangerous for the big 4 even at this stage…he has the level of impudence and courage to go after those on the top…if his head is fixed he will be a real force out there…I honestly do not see Borna Coric being a threat, at least not in the near future…and Thiem…he simply does not have the energy or so to say the guts to challenge the best atm…
Nats: How we all judge behaviour will be governed largely by cultural background and age. What constitutes bad or unacceptable behaviour differs widely between different cultures. I prefaced my comments about Kyrgios by acknowledging I am out of touch. I may be a dinorsor from another age but remember vividly the shock and horror with which my generation’s swinging London antics were greeted by our parent’s. Luckily they didn’t know the half of it 😉
To get back to tennis and the different attitudes to Mr.K’s behaviour the hope is he will harness his innate talents, learn to control his exhibitionism and show more courtesy to his opponents – not to mention ball boys, court officials and other people in authority.
…..but I’m not holding my breath.
Thiem will be top 5 in the near future and will win a slam
he doesn’t have the energy?????
I didn’t get that either. He’s a young kid. I would think he’d have tons of energy. I think he’s very promising.
yep
he will be top 5 in the near future??? you have a cristal ball? How can you be certain about it?
When I mentioned “energy” I meant to say that his tennis is not that pushy or so to say insistant to challenge the best…he fades away easily…I was not talking about his physical energy of course, it is rather ridiculous for the people to think that…but tennis does not rely on physical energy either…he has to have the brains and the sense of arrogance and belief that he could beat the best…IMO Thiem is not there yet…and I highly doubt he is going to win a slam in the near future…but that is just my opinion…I am glad to be proved wrong and I wish the kid all the best…
Once he matures he’s gonna be great
^Yes!
Nobody is saying Thiem is there yet. We are talking about this potential. Of course he has to develop more skills, but he’s already got the core game and also has shown mental toughness. Champions aren’t made overnight.
He has that elusive Big Match mentality and doesn’t buckle. As for not being able to challenge the best – ask WaWa what happened in Madrid last year 🙂
Thiem had beaten Stan if I’m not wrong and ran Murray close in another match. Thiem is only one year older than Kygrios and has already won three titles if I’m not wrong within this season. Kygrios OTOH has done nothing much after beating Rafa at Wimbledon,
He beat Federer at Madrid and – as we all know – Wawrinka this summer. So that’s a further two Top 4 scalps. Not much by way of titles but it’d be nice to see him harness his undoubted attitude to string a few wins together while ideally wearing a muzzle during play.
@ lucky,
so beating Fed in Madrid and beating Wawa twice in 2015 is nothing much???
Wow…that is an interesting point of view…
natashao2013 (at 8:52 am).
Beating Rafa is all that matters in the Tennis World. [According to professional TV commentators…]
🙂
BTW, Thiem is 2 years older than Nick not just one…that is a lot in tennis…at the age of 22 Rafa had already won 5 GSs, 12 Masters titles and the Olympic Gold…Thiem is well behind the schedule if he is to make difference in tennis…just saying…
Nata, so what with beating so and so, you still have to win the titles! Coric has also beaten Rafa and Murray, still, he has no title to show. Kygrios too.
Players like Rafa, Novak and Murray were already winning titles when at similar age to Kygrios and co.
Attention seeking is part of Kygrios character. His style of play is probably due to his attention seeking nature. His tennis wont be great if he rein it all in and plays like a normal tennis player. Its his eractic or eccentric style that makes it difficult for his opponents to deal with. He doesnt seem to have a good tennis brain so his tennis becomes more a case of hit or miss, not unlike Monfils’ though Kygrios’ is a more attacking style of tennis.
Players like Dimi or Thiem and now Tomic tends to play a more solid reliable style, or a more ‘normal’ style that is less high risk tennis. JJ OTOH, is a bit like Kygrios, ie going for broke and no margin for errors. I do feel players in this group tend to be those who would succeed, the Big four for eg. play solid and reliable tennis, not go for broke tennis.
I like Alex Zverev for he’s both attacking and yet has the precision and not going for broke. Hes impressive at Halle this year and at Hamburg last year, he seems to move well on any surface.
ATM Nick is all you state and I fully agree..but as I said, I hope he will change…even with all those shortcomings Kyrgios was able to beat Fed, Rafa and Wawa…imagine what he might do if he fixed his temper…
I disagree that his tennis brain is not good…it had to be good to be able to beat Rafa in Wimby…
anyway, these arguments are just speculations…we shall how it develops…for what is worth I would love these youngsters to step it up and make some difference in 2016…otherwise, if Rafa is not back to his 100 %, Novak will take it all again…and most importantly he will do it with ease…
We’ll have to agree to disagree about Nick and his tennis brain. Serving big and hitting hard without missing can sometimes help you to get there, esp when your opponent wasnt in good form. The thing is, after getting a big scalp, he then fell by the way side in his next match, just like any other ordinary player.
Even if these youngsters step it up, it wont be so soon that they’ll threaten Novak immediately. I’ll rather rely on Novak’s peer group to do the job of stopping Novak than to depend on these youngsters.
At the slams Stan is still good to stop Novak at AO and FO. Murray if he still has the belief could stop Novak at Wimbledon,provided Fed is in the other half of the draw. The USO is rather open IMO, any of the top guys could win it; Novak managed winning two out of six finals, not a high success rate.
All the above is assuming that Rafa has not found his good enough level to challenge Novak and the rest. Rafa may find it though….
Why would anyone compare a young player with Rafa? Rafa was a teenage phenom just like Borg. We aren’t seeing that in the game now. Young players are taking more time to develop. Rafa was one of a kind.
Lucky,
I really like your analysis of these young guys. I think you hit the nail on the head with Kygrios in saying that his style is an essential part of his game. He wouldn’t know any other way to play. I agree that Kyrgios doesn’t have a good tennis brain. He just goes for his shots and it’s hit or miss.
I also agree about Dimi, Thiem, maybe Tomic. They do have more reliable styles of play.
Zverev is someone I’ve already said that I am keeping my eye on.
Thx, will try to see some matches with Thiem and Zverev
both are awesome
Shireling: Thiem is due to play Jerzy janowisz shortly on Centre Court in Vienna after Monfils and Bellui finish their match. Being livestreamed on ATPTennisTV..
and on Tennis Channel
Shireling is in Brussels. The Tennis Channel is American TV, no?
yep
Wearing a muzzle during play? Is this supposed to be funny? I certainly hope so! 🙂
If Kygios needs a muzzle, then he doesn’t belong anywhere near a tennis court.!
Thiem takes the first set with ease. JJ was all over the place.
I haven’t watched many of JJ’s matches since his dream run in Paris. He continued to play well the following year and reached the Wimbledon SF but thereafter there was little sign of the promise he had shown. I think he has only had a handful of wins against top 20 players.
Well he’s cruising in this set.
Nope
After a superb opening set Thiem has gone off the boil and errors have crept into his game. He looked to be on the verge of handing the 2nd set to JJ until the Pole choked while serving for the set. Thiem now serving to level at 5-5 – which he does. JJ having let Thiem back into the match holds serve and the pressure is back on Thiem who holds to take it to a TB.
Which JJ takes. We’re going to a third set. After a brilliant opening set Thiem lost his way, fought back to level at 6-6 then played a poor TB.