Brilliant Nole won his 31st career trophy in a 61-minute final match at the Canadian Open on Sunday!
Top seed and defending champion captured his third Rogers Cup title with a 6-3,
6-2 victory over world no.21 Frenchman Richard Gasquet at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 hard court tennis tournament in Toronto.
Djokovic has now captured 12 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 shields. He surpassed Sampras and is ranked no.4 behind Nadal, Federer and Agassi.
Novak lost his first three points on serve to give Gasquet a triple-break point opportunity but then won five straight points to take a 1-0 lead. He made a break in the eighth game and finished off the set with an ace.
The 25-year-old Belgrade native took the momentum into the second set. He broke Gasquet in the opening game and again in the seventh to go up 5-2. Nole converted his second match point for his seventh win over the Frenchman in eight career meetings.
Match statistics: aces (5-3), double faults (0-1), winners (17-9), unforced errors (12-18), total points won (56-32).
“The losses I had in the Olympic Games gave me even more desire to come here and perform my best and try to win a title,” Novak said. “I am very happy to be in this position. I truly did not expect to win this tournament after the emotional losses in the Olympics. I really took it hard and tried to bounce back and recover. And I’ve done great, I have to say.”
Djokovic saved all four break points he faced and won 87 per cent of his first serve points.
Novak defended 1000 ATP Ranking points and recorded the 50th match win in 2012. He became the third player in the Open Era to win the Rogers Cup three times, having won it in 2007 and 2011 (Ivan Lendl 6, Andre Agassi 3).
Victory moves Nole to within 75 points of the top-ranked Federer.
The world no.2 next heads to Cincinnati for the Western & Southern Open, where he is a three-time finalist (2008, 2009, 2011). The seventh Masters 1000 event of the season will be held from August 12 to August 19.
Photo: Reuters
