Paris: Serbia’s Novak Djokovic defeated Canada’s Denis Shapovalov in straight sets to win his fifth Paris Masters title and head to the ATP Finals in striking distance in the battle for year-end No. 1.
In the Sunday’s final which lasted for just over an hour, Djokovic dispatched Shapovalov 6-3, 6-4 to win his 34th Masters 1000 title.
The 32-year-old, who has been No. 1 the entire season and reached the 50th Masters 1000 final of his career with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory over in-form Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in Saturday’s first semifinal, had defeated Shapovalov 6-3, 6-3 in his opening match at last month’s Shanghai Masters.
“I think I had the best serving match of the tournament, and that’s why the match was pretty short,” the ATP Tour website quoted Djokovic as saying after the match. “I put him under pressure (on) the second serve, and from the back of the court, I was solid and not giving him too many opportunities.
“(It was) just one of the best matches I have played, definitely, this week. And I feel like the second part of the week was terrific. It was improving day-by-day for me in terms of level of tennis,” he added.
Djokovic added 1,000 ATP Race To London points to his tally and, with 8,945 points, is only 640 points away from Spain’s Rafael Nadal (9,585), who will take the numero uno spot on Monday for the first time in a year.
The Spaniard had withdrawn from his semi-final against Shapovalov (abdominal) but said he plans to do everything to be ready to compete at the ATP Finals, to be held November 10-17 in London.
IANS
