Novak Djokovic creates history at Shanghai Masters
Novak Djokovic continued his imperious form which began at Wimbledon earlier this year by swatting aside Croatian Borna Coric who got the better of defending champion Roger Federer in the semi-finals. With his victory, Novak Djokovic broke a tie with Scot Andy Murray to become the most successful player at the Shanghai ATP Masters. His title this time around was his fourth at the Rolex Shanghai Masters. He was earlier a winner here in 2012, 2013 and 2015.
With his victory, Djokovic leapfrogged Roger Federer to 2nd spot in the ATP rankings. He is just 35 points behind top ranked Rafael Nadal and his victory at the Shanghai Masters means that he is just one behind Rafael Nadal's tally of 33 ATP Masters titles.
Extending his winning streak to 18 wins in a row, the Serb did not drop his serve all week winning all 47 of his service games. With 20 wins and just 6 losses in ATP Masters tournaments this year, Djokovic is just behind Zverev who has a 22-7 record in ATP Masters tournaments so far this year.
His victory at the Cincinnati Masters prior to his US Open triumph made him the only man in ATP history to have won all 9 Masters 1000 tournaments. The Serb will be the strong favorite to win the final ATP Masters 1000 event in Paris later this year and will also look to tie Roger Federer's record of 6 ATP Finals victories in London.
2017 Rolex Shanghai Masters champion Roger Federer did not hit top form as he was stretched in all the matches. He dropped a set each to Daniil Medvedev and Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut and although he beat US Open semi-finalist Kei Nishikori in straight sets, he ended up losing to Croatian Borna Coric for the second time this year.
After having lost to Coric at the Gerry Weber Open final in June earlier this year, Federer couldn't manage to break the Croat's service even once and did not have a break point opportunity at all over the course of his match. However, few can dare make the mistake of writing off the great man after his recent results.
He has shown time and again that he is right there among the best and has proven his critics wrong many times. At 37, Roger may shake this loss off and emerge as a strong contender in the tournaments to follow.