SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER!
 
 
Facebook Social Button Twitter Social Button Follow Us on InstagramYouTube Social Button
NewsScoresRankingsLucky Letcord PodcastShopPro GearPickleballGear Sale


By Chris Oddo | Sunday April 3, 2016

On a windy afternoon in Miami, Novak Djokovic took pause during the second set of his victory over Kei Nishikori to pay homage to a flock of sea birds as they flew over the stadium. Moments later fans at Crandon Park were acknowledging Djokovic’s latest soaring spectacle, a straight-sets triumph that earned him his record 28th Masters 1000 title.

More: Azarenka Powers to 20th Career Title in Miami

“Obviously I don't take any win for granted and especially in the big ones,” Djokovic said after his 6-3, 6-3 victory, his seventh in nine career meetings with Nishikori. “So it was my best performance of the tournament. It came at the right time against a great quality player.”

Djokovic, who claimed his sixth Miami title and fourth Indian Wells-Miami double on Sunday, is the only player to have won the “Sunshine Double” more than twice. He has won his last 16 matches in Miami, and has gone 84-3 at the majors and the Masters 1000 events since the beginning of 2015. Anybody with an internet connection can google Djokovic streak and keep listing his latest run of jaw-dropping achievements. It's a fact that isn't lost on the world No. 1.

“Obviously I don't take any win for granted and especially in the big ones,” he said. “So it was my best performance of the tournament. It came at the right time against a great quality player.”

Squeaky-clean from start to finish, Djokovic was relatively untroubled by his opponent in winning for the 29th time in his last 30 Miami matches. Nishikori, playing in his second career Masters 1000 final, struggled with Djokovic’s impenetrable defense, the wind and later, a twisted left knee.

Nishikori can add his name to the list of players that have found themselves scratching their heads after running into Djokovic in the business end of a tournament.

“It's tough to find his weakness, honestly,” Nishikori told reporters after the match. “The biggest thing is he has great defense. It's tough to open up the space. And, yeah, I had a couple strategies before coming to this match, but I don't think I did that well to beat him today.”

Nishikori started strong, breaking in the first game of the match as a Djokovic forehand sailed long, but was immediately broken back for 1-all moments later.

The pair would trade breaks once more in the opening set, with Djokovic breaking for 4-2 and Nishikori breaking back when his backhand return winner didn’t elicit a challenge from Djokovic (replays showed the ball was out by quite a margin).

But Nishikori could not stay on serve for long. He saved a break point in the next game, but shanked a forehand long on the next point.

“I know how tough he plays after he gets broken,” Nishikori said, “so he's very focused.”

Djokovic served the set out in the next game and broke in the opening game of the second set.

It was a lead he would never relinquish.

Nishikori did not see a break point in the second set and he later came up lame while trying to hold serve in the seventh game of the set. He would stretch his left knee and walk on the leg gingerly, but he was able to hold for 3-4 before calling for the trainer.

“I twisted it a little bit,” he told the trainer, while having the area just above his left knee cap on the inside of the leg massaged by the trainer. The repair job was good enough to get Nishikori out of his chair, but the No. 6 seed didn’t have enough in the tank to mount a rally. Djokovic held at love for 5-3 and finally sealed the title on his third championship point when a mishit Nishikori forehand sailed long.

Djokovic reminisced about his rich past at this event with reporters after the match, saying that Miami will always hold a special place in his heart as the first Masters 1000 title he ever won.

“Every year that I come back to Miami I do go through those memories from back in 2007, was the first Masters I won and opened a lot of doors for me, gave me a lot of self-belief,” he said. “I started to realize that I'm able to win, you know, the big trophies and to beat the best players in the world.”

Now he is the best player in the world, and there doesn’t appear to be a thing that anybody else can do about it, at least in the short term.

But that doesn’t mean the other players can’t dream about it.

“I hope I can get you next time,” Nishikori told Djokovic during the tournament’s trophy ceremony, drawing sprinkles of laughter and applause from the crowd.

But Djokovic won’t let his grip slip without a fight. Even at the awards ceremony, he couldn’t help one-upping his competition.

“I hope you don’t get me next time,” he said with a smile. “But I do hope that you recover, I hope you’re not carrying anything serious and you’ll be fine for clay-court season.”

Notes, Numbers, Tweets

Djokovic is the first player to win three consecutive titles at Miami since Andre Agassi (2001-2003)… Djokovic has reached the final of his last 11 Masters 1000 finals and gone 56-2 during those events… Djokovic earned $1,028,300 in Miami, which makes him the ATP’s all-time prize money leader. He has now earned $98.2 million while Roger Federer has won $97.9 million… Besides Djokovic (28), only two other players have won more than 20 Masters titles. They are Rafael Nadal (27) and Federer (24)… Djokovic improves to 63-26 in career finals with his win. Nishikori drops to 11-6 in finals… The Big Four (Djokovic, Federer, Nadal, Murray) have won 50 of the last 54 Masters 1000 titles. The only players to break through in that 54-event span are Andy Roddick, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Robin Soderling and Stan Wawrinka. “I hope you don’t get me next time. But I do hope that you recover, I hope you’re not carrying anything serious and you’ll be fine for clay-court season.






 

Latest News