Tennis: Djokovic regains glory at Shanghai Open

- DR. ABDUL RUFF

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Winning a tournament in style always has something special about it and the Serb  Novak Djokovic achieved that feat by defeating the London Olympics Champion and England's top player Andy Murray.  Murry has now lost to world’s number two player Djokovic, in spite of his having more aces than Djokovic has, maybe because of the double faults he committed. Maybe, Djokovic was more focused than during the Olympics. Break points do matter.

That is how matches are won and lost.

World number two Novak Djokovic prevailed over Great Britain's Andy Murray in a physically and emotionally draining three-set contest, beating the Scot 5-7, 7-6 (13-11), 6-3. The win is the Serbian's third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title this season, following wins in Miami (where he also beat Murray) and Toronto. It is the 12th Masters title of Djokovic's career and ends Murray's two-year domination of the tournament. The Scot won the title in 2010 and 2011, beating Roger Federer and David Ferrer respectively.

Novak Djokovic exacted direct revenge on Andy Murray for his U.S. Open final defeat by outlasting the Briton 5-7, 7-6, 6-3 to win the Shanghai Masters tennis title on Sunday the 14^th October. The Serbian saved five match points in the second set, including four in the tiebreak, to force a tense decider. The world number two then broke Murray, winner in Shanghai for the last two years, in the seventh game and again at 5-3, prevailing on his third match point to triumph when his opponent went long. Djokovic had lost to Murray in their last two meetings, the U.S. Open final at Flushing Meadows in September in which the Scot secured his first grand-slam triumph, and the semi-finals of the Olympics.

Obviously, Murray was looking for a third consecutive victory over Djokovic after beating the Serbian world number two in the Olympic semi-final and then in their Flushing Meadows showdown. "I've known him for 14, 15 years now," Murray said. "We've always been I think pretty respectful of each other."

Looking ahead to his clash with Murray, Djokovic, who has been bidding to reclaim the top ranking before the end of the year, said: "I don't like the word 'revenge.' "I never like revenge. I just play tennis and I try to win every match that I play” And played and won the Shanghai title.

Before the finals, both Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic cruised through their semi-finals at the Shanghai Masters to set up a repeat of their memorable US Open final last month. Briton Murray, bidding for a hat-trick of titles in the Chinese port city, overpowered World No 1 Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 as Djokovic dispatched Tomas Berdych for the loss of one less game.  

After losing the first set, Djokovic got the second set but his enthusiasm was not the at high ebb, however, finally found some of the missing composure from his first serve in the ninth game, to go 5-4 up and forced Murray to serve under pressure. The 2012 US Open champion responded with a comical tenth game. First, Murray served not one but two double faults and Djokovic then matched his opponent for poor play by giving those points straight back to him. Murray finally closed out the game with a backhand winner. 

One of the best ever tennis players with potentials for aces, Federer is slowly falling apart. There was not too much respect for 17-times grand slam champion Federer who produced a lacklustre display to lose for the 10th time to Murray in 18 meetings. Murray was the dominant player throughout and Federer was merely hanging on for much of the time. After service breaks were swapped early on, Murray seized control of the opening set in the fifth game when the Swiss served three consecutive double faults. Djokovic was equally impressive against hard-hitting Berdych, roaring into a 5-1 lead before the Czech dug in. He was again dominant in the second set, capitalising on an early break to lead 4-2 before eventually serving out to sail into his first Shanghai final.

Djokovic is all set to reclaim his top ranking in tennis. But one question remains:  did Djokovic and other top payers in fact deliberately push Scot of UK, Murry for gold in Olympics because of pressures from UK to let a son of soil  Murry win the Gold medal? Or, because Murry was fully focused on a gold medal? Or, something else?

However that does not matter now!  Tennis continues to suffer in service exellence because  the palyers are unalbe to hit aces in psite of  huge expereinces and practices they have!.