Djokovic retains Shanghai Masters title
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 14, 2013
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Djokovic kissed the trophy after an entertaining final that saw the Serb retain his Shanghai crown. |
Novak Djokovic retained his Shanghai Rolex Masters title in Sunday's final against Juan Martin del Potro.
Djokovic won his second consecutive Shanghai title with an outstanding performance in the match that made sold out stadium seats and concluded with a standing ovation from spectators. He battled for two hours and 32 minutes to make his way past Juan Martin del Potro 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (3).
At the beginning, it appeared as if Del Potro might be feeling a little fatigued from his 6-2, 6-4 semifinal win over world No. 1 Rafael Nadal on Saturday. He quickly fell behind in the opening set, but rebounded in the second set to send the match into a decisive third set.
Djokovic's triumph was his 20th match win in a row in China and provided his seventh career title here. Over the past two years, Djokovic has won Beijing's China Open twice (four times in total) and now the Shanghai Rolex Masters a second time as well. He also won the 2008 Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai.
"It was a great experience again in Shanghai with a thrilling performance tonight from both my opponent and myself," Djokovic said, "I think the tournament had a fantastic final. I'm just very glad to exit the court as a winner tonight after such a close match. "
"This is definitely one of the best tournaments in the world for its organization and the players have voted it that for the last four years," he added, "Every time we come here there's something new and improved."
Djokovic also prepared a surprise for his Chinese fans and wrote two Chinese characters on a camera after the match: "love" and "smile."
"I would like to congratulate you, Novak, once again," Del Potro said. "It's really tough to beat you. I'm really proud of you, and you and your team are having a fantastic year. I'm so happy to reach my first final in Shanghai and I'm looking forward to coming back next year to try and win this title for the first time."
The 2013 Shanghai Rolex Masters doubles title went to Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Marcelo Melo of Brazil. The champions had an extremely tough fight against the Spanish David Marrero and Fernando Verdasco.
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Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo (R) won doubles title in Shanghai. |
"This tournament is like the best during the ATP year," Dodig said, "It's special for us. Like I said, first title Masters Series here in Shanghai, which the tournament make possible everything for the players be comfortable. We are really, really happy."
As the Shanghai Rolex Masters came to an end, attracting a total of 29 sponsors and thousands of spectators, organizers and observers still hope to improve the match in the future, for itself and China's tennis landscape. Just one week of matches starring top players isn't enough; Chinese tennis needs more than just one such week to improve itself.
"Challengers are one of the vital stepping stones in creating talent," said Alison Lee, executive vice president of ATP International Group. "I think China needs to focus on getting the right structure of its tournaments because you can be too heavy and then not have anything in the middle. We are working with the Chinese Tennis Association which has [thus far] done a great job. They've gone from having no Challenger tournaments to having one in Beijing, run by the China Open, to [a total of] six last year. That's a very good number. "
"Countries that have a very good structure of tournaments, juniors, Futures, Challengers, ATP World Tour events, countries like Spain, France, Brazil, they're the ones creating the top players. France has 10 players in the top 100. That's where we need to go," she added.
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