Djokovic thumps king of clay Nadal to enter third round
The two greats of the racquet game, both in the evening of their fabulous journey in tennis, have fought many a pitched battle between themselves in their glittering careers.
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic eased past Denis Shapovalov of Canada in straight sets to take home his fifth Paris Masters and 34th Masters 1000 title on Sunday.
With the win, Djokovic added 1,000 ATP Race To London points to his tally and has 8,945 points in his basket. The world number 2 is only 640 points away from Spain’s Rafael Nadal (9,585), who holds the numero uno position.
Talking about Sunday’s final, Djokovic outplayed a nervy Shapovalov 6-3, 6-4 in a match which lasted for just over an hour.
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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,” Djokovic was quoted as saying on the ATP Tour website. “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.
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