RICKY DIMON REPORTS ON TENNIS FROM THE MIAMI OPEN 2016 AS NOVAK DJOKOVIC BEATS KEI NISHIKORI AND WINS RECORD 28TH MASTERS 1000 TITLE

Written by: Staff on 3rd April 2016

RICKY DIMON REPORTS ON TENNIS FROM THE MIAMI OPEN 2016 AS NOVAK DJOKOVIC BEATS KEI NISHIKORI AND WINS RECORD 28TH MASTERS 1000 TITLE

epa05242651 Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates after defeating Kei Nishikori of Japan during the men's singles final match at the Miami Open tennis tournament on Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA, 03 April 2016. EPA/ERIK S. LESSER |

Novak Djokovic pulled off a three-peat at the Miami Open and won the tournament for the sixth time in his career by defeating Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-3 on Sunday afternoon. Djokovic got off to a relatively slow start and dropped serve twice in the first set but ended up cruising to the title in one hour and 26 minutes.

Nishikori broke right away at love for a quick 1-0 advantage in the opener only to give it right back. The world No. 1 soon found himself trailing by a break before earning another scalp of the Djokovic serve at 2-4. A somewhat bizarre first set saw Nishikori win eight return points–all of which came in two love service breaks. Djokovic held his other three service games at love.

Set two was more straightforward, with the top-seeded Serb surrendering only four points on serve. Two breaks were more than enough for Djokovic, who coasted to the finish line as Nishikori began struggling with an apparent knee problem.

Kei Nishikori of Japan in action against Novak Djokovic of Serbia during the men’s singles final match at the Miami Open tennis tournament on Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA, 03 April 2016 EPA/RHONA WISE

“I thought he started very well breaking my serve in the first game and coming out with some big forehands and aggressive play,” the champion reflected. “I needed to answer right back, which I did in the following game…which helped me mentally to kind of continue the match in a right way. Because if you’re a break down, 2-0 down, things are a little bit different, obviously–especially against a player like Kei.

“It was best performance of the tournament (today). It came at the right time against a great, quality player.”

“I thought I wasn’t playing too bad,” Nishikori assessed. “But (at the) same time, he played great tennis. So that’s why I couldn’t play what I wanted to play. Also my serve wasn’t going (well) today. So that was [a] shame to have that, because he had a great return. I felt a little pressure on my service game.”

In triumphing, Djokovic gained sole possession of the all-time lead in Masters 1000 titles with 28. He also surpassed Boris Becker for 11th place on the all-time ATP Open Era victories list with 714. Additionally, Djokovic moved past Roger Federer for No. 1 on the career prize money chart and completed the Indian Wells-Miami double for a record fourth time.

“Every year that I come back to Miami, I do go through those memories from back in 2007…the first Masters I won; (it) opened a lot of doors for me, gave me a lot of self-belief,” Djokovic added. “I started to realize that I’m able to win the big trophies and to beat the best players in the world. So of course this is a particular place for me to come back to, now winning it six times. Obviously I don’t take any win for granted, and especially in the big ones.”