By Chris Oddo | Saturday, November 1, 2014
Novak Djokovic and Milos Raonic will meet in for the third time in 2014 in Sunday's BNP Paribas Masters final.
Photo Source: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty
Novak Djokovic increased his stranglehold on the ATP’s No. 1 ranking with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over nemesis Kei Nishikori to set up a final with Canada’s Milos Raonic at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris on Saturday.
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Djokovic, the defending and two-time champion in Paris, will bid for his 600th career win in Sunday’s final when he meets Raonic for the third time in 2014 and fourth overall (Djokovic has won all three).
Raonic, who qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals on Friday by defeating Roger Federer in straight-sets, notched back-to-back top five wins for the first time in his career by engineering a late break in the third set against Tomas Berdych to eke out the victory.
“I got a little fortunate there at the end of the match,” said Raonic, according to the ATP’s web site. “I'm grateful and I've got to keep pushing forward.”
Djokovic casually brushed aside Nishikori to avenge a big loss to the Japanese No. 1 at this year’s US Open semifinals and even his lifetime record against the first Asian Man to ever qualify for the ATP's World Tour Finals to 2-2.
The world No. 1 extended his advantage over Roger Federer in the race to year-end No. 1 to 910 points, and he pulled within one win of becoming the fifth active player to reach the 600-win plateau.
Djokovic claimed the first set by breaking to love in the eighth game, and after the pair traded breaks early in the second set, Djokovic would claim the decisive break straight away and hold serve the rest of the way to clinch the victory in 62 minutes.
Djokovic admitted that he may have caught Nishikori on a bad day. “We could see Kei wasn't serving at his best, maybe he was fatigued from finishing late last night,” he said, according to the ATP.
Djokovic will carry a 26-match indoor streak into the final against a player he has never lost to, and if he wins he will have built an almost insurmountable 1310-point lead over Roger Federer for the No. 1 ranking.
With 1500 points on offer at the World Tour Finals in London, Federer would need to win the title without the loss of a match and Djokovic would need to be held to just one round-robin win for the Serb to fail in his bid to claim the ATP’s year-end ranking for a third time in the last four years.
Notes, Numbers, Tweets
Raonic reached his second Masters 1000 final with the victory. Djokovic is bidding for his 20th Masters 1000 title.
Raonic struck 12 aces today, advancing his total to 1084 on the season.