Reinvented Novak Djokovic wants to dethrone World No. 1 Rafael Nadal after beating Borna Coric to clinch fourth Shanghai Masters crown
Serbia's Novak Djokovic kisses the Shanghai Masters trophy after defeating Croatia's Borna Coric in the final yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
The "new" Novak Djokovic warned that he was gunning for Rafael Nadal's World No. 1 ranking after winning the Shanghai Masters with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Borna Coric yesterday. The 14-time Grand Slam champion has been imperious all week and barely offered a sniff to the 19th-ranked Croatian, a good friend and sometime-training partner.
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The end when it inevitably arrived was anti-climactic, with the Serb winning the championship point after a video review. Djokovic, 31, will leapfrog Roger Federer into second in the world when the rankings are released on today, but will not stop there as the season reaches its climax.
Croatian Borna Coric
Spanish great Nadal, who was not in Shanghai or Beijing last week because of a knee injury, will be just 215 points ahead of Djokovic in the race to finish as year-end number one. "I could not ask for a better scenario," Djokovic, who last sat atop the rankings two years ago, said of his late surge to the summit of men's tennis.
"I am very close to Nadal in the rankings now and put myself in a good position for the last period of the year." Red-hot Djokovic has now been victorious in 18 ATP matches in a row and in recent months won Wimbledon, the Cincinnati Masters, the US Open and now Shanghai for a fourth time.
Djokovic, who has been particularly dominant on his serve, not dropping one service game in Shanghai, said: "I think you're seeing the new Novak. I don't need to describe him, that's all I can say.
"I had to reinvent myself and find, you know, [a] proper formula for success. I found it and I'm just trying to hold on to it as long as I can." Asked if he had a message for Nadal, the Serb smiled: "I will leave that up to your creative spirit of journalism."
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