Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic
defeated Russian star Nikolay Davydenko in straight sets on Sunday to capture
the championship at the 2008 Tennis Masters Cup.
The second-seeded Djokovic handled the fourth-seeded Davydenko 6-1, 7-5 on Day
8 at Shanghai's Qi Zhong Stadium.
The 21-year-old Djokovic prevailed in 1 hour, 42 minutes, as he broke
Davydenko's serve four times, compared to only one break for the 27-year-old
loser.
"I'm very, very happy," said Djokovic, who kissed the court and tossed his
racquet and shirt into the stands.
"It's a great achievement for me. The best eight players playing here says
everything about the quality of the event and I would definitely put it on a
level with the Grand Slams."
Djokovic raced out to a 5-0 lead in the first set and never looked back.
Davydenko actually saved some match points while trailing 3-5 in the second
set and would eventually pull even in the stanza, but the inspired Serb was
just too much for him on Day 8 and Djokovic ultimately closed out the match
with a big serve that was netted by the Russian.
"For me I think was today a very difficult day," said Davydenko. "He played
very good."
"Against Djokovic you need to be perfect, also play very fast and very good.
That's what he did, and I didn't. I really had no chance."
Djokovic, who won this week's four-player Gold Group, went 4-1 for the week,
including a victory over Davydenko in the round-robin portion of the event.
Davydenko wound up 3-2 for the week, with both losses coming against Djokovic.
The world No. 3 Serbian Djokovic is now 2-1 lifetime against the world No. 5
Davydenko, with all three meetings coming this year. The speedy Russian
prevailed in a Davis Cup bout earlier in the season.
The Belgrade native Djokovic now owns 11 career titles in 17 finals and went
4-3 in his 2008 title tilts. Davydenko went 3-2 in five finals this season,
including a big Masters Series title in Miami. He dropped to 14-5 in his
career ATP finals.
Djokovic captured his first-ever major title at the Aussie Open back in
January. He went 64-17 this year and captured a bronze medal at the Olympic
Games here in China.
The 6-foot-3 Djokovic pocketed $1.24 million this week, while Davydenko
settled for $615,000 at this exclusive $4.45 million tournament.
Swiss great Roger Federer won this event the last two years, but was
eliminated from semifinal contention by Scottish star Andy Murray here on
Friday. Davydenko upset a weary Murray in Saturday's semis.
In Sunday's doubles final, the second-seeded tandem of Canadian Daniel Nestor
and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking by dousing the
top-seeded duo of American twin brothers Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.
The 2003 and 2004 Masters Cup champion Bryans had been the year-end No. 1 team
the previous three years.
Nestor-Zimonjic went 3-1 against the Bryans this season.
The 36-year-old Nestor also captured the Masters Cup doubles title last year,
when he was paired with Bahamian Mark Knowles.
This prestigious event will shift to London next year.
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