NOVAK DJOKOVIC WINS THE PARIS INDOORS IN BERCY BY RICHARD EVANS

Written by: Staff on 2nd November 2014

BNP Paribas 2014 Masters Tennis Tournament

NOVAK DJOKOVIC WINS THE PARIS INDOORS IN BERCY BY RICHARD EVANS

epa04473477 Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates with his trophy after winning the final match against Milos Raonic of Canada at the BNP Paribas 2014 Masters tennis tournament in Paris, France, 02 November 2014. EPA/IAN LANGSDON |

Apart from a strange, brief and eventually irrelevant period midway through the first set when his opponent won eight consecutive points, Novak Djokovic was rarely troubled as he retained his BNP Paribas Masters title here at Bercy with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Milos Raonic.

In front of a typically boisterous 15,000 crowd in a stadium that is actually undergoing massive renovation, Djokovic admitted it could have been the turning point of the match when Raonic, trailing 1-4, recovered from 0-40 on his serve and then led 0-40 on the Serb’s delivery in the next game. “Thank God it was the only little crisis I faced in the match,” Djokovic said. “I managed to save the service game which was probably crucial. I didn’t want him to come back on even terms. After that I started swinging through. It was a great match.”

It was certainly a great match for the world No 1 who feels a lot more confident of holding off Roger Federer’s challenge now that he has retained all the ATP points he won for winning here last year. But Raonic will want to study the way he missed two bad smashes and erred by some distance on a few of his forehands which was a shot he had been hitting with increasing confidence and accuracy through the week.

Milos Raonic of Canada returns to Novak Djokovic of Serbia during his final match at the BNP Paribas 2014 Masters tennis tournament in Paris, France, 02 November 2014. EPA/IAN LANGSDON

The studious Canadian offered a fair assessment of how the match unfolded. “I thought he played some great tennis,” he said. “He neutralized my serve well. Even when I was able to open him up on the backhand side, he was moving really well. He was always getting two hands on it. It was never sort of defending with a slice. And he always played deep. He really didn’t give me too many looks. He just made life difficult for me today.”

Djokovic felt he played his best match of the week “when it was most needed” and if he can carry this form in to the ATP Finals in London which begin next Sunday, he wresting that title from his grasp will be equally difficult, despite the obvious strength of the field.

For the Serb playing round robin against the top seven best players in the world until the semi-final knock out stage is nothing new. Raonic, however, will be facing a steep learning curve. “For the first time going to London, for me, the toughest thing is going to be to adapt to not having those early round matches where you sort of find your way into the event. You can’t really be expecting to play your best tennis in your first match. You will have to find a way to accelerate the search for solutions to reach a certain level of tennis. It’s going to be something new to me but I’m more than ready to make that adjustment.”

This has been a fascinating week of tennis in Paris. Djokovic put the final stamp on it with his display in the final but Raonic ousting David Ferrer as the last man to gain entry to London was one of the major stories. Andy Murray’s early round form put him back in the mix for London after an amazing run of sixth consecutive tournaments and Kevin Anderson’s defeat of Stan Wawrinka suggests that the South African may be poised for greater things next year after a season of increasingly consistent performances.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia reacts during his final match against Milos Raonic of Canada at the BNP Paribas 2014 Masters tennis tournament in Paris, France, 02 November 2014. EPA/IAN LANGSDON

Spanish tennis player David Ferrer returns to Andy Murray of Britain during their Valencia Open 500 semi final match played at the Agora tennis court in Valencia, Spain, 25 October 2014. EPA/KAI FOERSTERLING

Andy Murray of Britain reacts during his round of sixteen match against Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria at the BNP Paribas 2014 Masters tennis tournament in Paris, France, 30 October 2014. EPA/YOAN VALAT

And, of course, Djokovic was not the only winner today. The amazing Bryan Brothers came through with yet another title, beating Marcin Matkowski and Jurgen Melzer 10-6 in the deciding doubles tie breaker. That gave Mike and Brian their 102nd career title out of the 153 finals in which they have appeared. It is a truly extraordinary record and they deserve a lot more recognition than they receive.

Under Chris Kermode’s leadership I understand the ATP is going to make yet another effort to get more doubles on television in an attempt to illuminate an aspect of the sport that is hugely appreciated by fans whenever they get the chance to see it.

Topics: Andy Murray, Atp, Bercy, Bnp Paribas Masters, Bryan Brothers, David Ferrer, milos raonic, Novak Djokovic, Paris, Richard Evans, Tennis

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10sBalls_com says:

November 2, 2014 at 12:02 pm

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