TORONTO, July 31, 2016
Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori will compete in Sunday’s final of the Rogers Cup in Toronto. The world number one ended the winning streak of Gael Monfils with a 6-3, 6-2 victory.
After claiminig the Washington title last weekend, the Frenchman was on a career-long nine-match win streak but Djokovic’s success was never in doubt, converting four of his five break point chances to advance in one hour and 13 minutes.
“You do have a certain mental comfort knowing that you have had plenty of success against your opponent. Nevertheless, that is not a certainty. That’s not a guarantee that you can win the match. Actually, it actually makes him more eager to come out and play his best tennis,” Djokovic said. “I’ve been working on my serve a lot the last couple of years, and I think especially on the second serve it has gave me an advantage, more depth on the second serve and so forth. In this tournament it is not working very well but in general in past couple of years it has served me very well.”
Monfils said: “I guess he missed a few shots at the beginning. I got some opportunities and I took them. Then suddenly he was not missing anymore. He was going for his shots and being much better in the rallies. He became super solid. When Novak is playing like that, it’s very tough to beat him.”
The world number 14 from France, however, slammed the Hot Shot of the match:
Djokovic will take on Kei Nishikori for the title. The 26-year-old from Japan gained his second victory over Stan Wawrinka in the pair’s fifth tour meeting, winning 7-6, 6-1.
Nishikori benefited from the Swiss’ 37 unforced errors and capitalized on three of his nine break point chances to advance in one hour and 28 minutes.
“I think he started much better in the first couple games, especially,” said Nishikori. “He was hitting very good serves and was very aggressive until the 5-3 game. I started returning better and he was missing a little bit. I think he had more chances to get the first set.
“After that, he started playing a little slower. I knew I had to step it up, otherwise he’s going to come back. I’m just happy to win today.
Djokovic and Nishikori will collide for the 12th time with the Serbian leading 9-2 in head to head records. Djokovic has already got the better of the Japanese five time this season. Their last meeting took place at the ATP Masters 1000 in Rome. The world number one won the tie-break of the final set 7-5.
