Novak Djokovic- Getty Images

Djokovic Triumphs Again

May 12, 2008

Men Now Head to Hamburg for Fifth Masters Series Event

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic further cemented his place among the world’s elite last week when he captured the Masters Shield at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia event in Rome, his third title of 2008.

He capped off another impressive week of tennis with a championship round victory over surprise finalist Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland). Wawrinka showed few nerves in the opening set of his first appearance in a Masters Series final as he broke in the fifth game and didn’t look back, winning 6-4. But the talent of the world No. 3 ultimately proved to be too much as Djokovic rebounded to win the next two sets by identical 6-3 scores to hoist the winner’s trophy. Despite the loss, Wawrinka jumped 14 spots in the South African Airways ATP Rankings and now sits inside the Top 10 for the first time, at No. 10.

This season, Djokovic has emerged as the player to beat. He is the only three-time winner on the Tour so far in 2008 and has captured three of the six biggest tournaments played by the men. In addition to the Rome Masters title, the 20-year-old captured his first career Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January and then collected the Pacific Life Open trophy in Indian Wells, California for his third career Masters Shield. His stellar campaign has also inched him closer to unseating Rafael Nadal (Spain) for No. 2 in the world rankings as he now sits only 310 points behind the Spanish sensation.

The doubles final was equally as exciting as it featured the top two teams in the draw: top-seeded American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan against No. 2 Daniel Nestor (Toronto) and Nenad Zimonjic (Serbia). In a thrilling final that needed a match tiebreak set to determine the winners, the Bryans fought back after dropping the first set to capture the title with a 3-6, 6-4, [10-8] triumph in the championship round. Their third crown of the season vaulted them into first place in the Stanford ATP Doubles Race, a place they have held at the end of the season four times in the last five years. The brothers have now won eight of the nine Masters Series events on the ATP Tour calendar over their careers. The only one missing is, ironically, the Indian Wells title in their home state of California.

Although the Canadian-Serbian duo came one win shy of their first doubles title of the season, an appearance in the final was just what they needed to boost their confidence as the French Open looms in just a couple of week. Prior to this event they had suffered opening round losses in four straight tournaments but their run in Rome signified a return to the form that saw them reach the final at Indian Wells and the semifinal in Dubai earlier this year.

This week the men are in Germany for the Masters Series Hamburg presented by EON Hanse. Eight of the world’s Top 10 players will do battle for the season’s fifth Masters Shield, including top seed Roger Federer (Switzerland), No. 2 Nadal, No. 3 Djokovic, No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) and No. 5 David Ferrer (Spain). In last year’s final, Federer recorded his only career win on clay over Nadal, when he bounced back from a first set loss to crush the King of Clay 2-6, 6-2, 6-0. As the top two seeds in the tournament they are on opposite sides of the draw again and could meet in the final if they can win throughout the week.

Monday’s first round winners included No. 12 seed Juan Monaco (Argentina), No. 14 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France), No. 15 Andy Murray (Great Britain), and qualifier Marat Safin (Russia), while No. 10 Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) was upset by Spaniard Fernando Verdasco and No. 16 Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) was defeated by German Nicolas Kiefer.

The top seeds will see their first action of the week on Tuesday and Wednesday.