By Chris Oddo | Sunday October 18, 2015
Novak Djokovic continued his full-on domination in China by taking down Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final.
Photo Source: Lintao Zhang
Novak Djokovic eased past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga with clinical precision on Sunday in Shanghai, 6-2, 6-4, to complete a convincing Asian sweep and raise his career title count to 57.
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The Serb also passes Roger Federer to move into second place on the all-time Masters 1000 title list with 25, and becomes the first man to win five Masters 1000 titles in the same season twice.
Djokovic was focused from the start and it showed. He raced out to a 3-0 double-break lead in set one against a clearly tight Tsonga, who seemed to be aware of the fact that he’d need to be perfect to have any chance against the world-beating Djokovic on this day.
After Tsonga crawled back from 0-40 down to hold for 2-5 in set one, Tennis Channel commentator Paul Annacone summed the situation faced by the Frenchman aptly. ““That’s how you do it, you just have to hit every line on the court,” he said.
Djokovic would hold to love to take the set in the next game, but he encountered a more determined Tsonga in the second stanza.
Though Djokovic continued holding easily and maintained his jaw-dropping assault on the Tsonga second serve (he won 21 of 25 second-serve return points in the final), the 30-year-old Frenchman managed to dial in his first serve and rained down several thundering offerings to bail himself out of trouble.
He saved a break point with a giant serve then aced Djokovic to hold for 2-1, then used more clutch serving to save two break points to hold for 3-2.
But Tsonga’s magic would soon run out against the relentless Serb. There was simply too much Djokovic precision on this afternoon for Tsonga to handle. In the ninth game he saved two more break points but couldn’t manage to survive a third as Djokovic notched his 4th break of the day to earn a chance to serve for the title.
The world No. 1 would make no mistake. He reeled off four consecutive points to close affairs in a tidy 78 minutes for his 73rd win and ninth title of the season.
Tsonga, who moves into ninth in the Race to London with his final run, falls to 6-14 vs. Djokovic and has now lost 12 of his last 13 against the ten-time major champion.
As for Djokovic, his invincibility only seems to grow with each passing tournament in China. He has now won 17 matches and 22 sets in succession, in addition to winning 38 of his last 39 matches in China.
Remarkably, Djokovic has more titles than losses on hard courts since the beginning of 2011. He was won 29 titles since the beginning of 2011 and lost only 25 times, going 239-25 on the surface during that time.