Djokovic Denies Del Potro, Wins 2nd Shanghai Title

Well it's a shame Del Potro could not finally win a Masters Series title, but he came as close as he's ever been. Also congrats to Djokovic who won 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(3) and continues to impress post US Open with a second consecutive Shanghai title. It's ironic that Nadal dominated until he became #1 and then lost in consecutive tournaments for the first time this year. Djokovic on the other hand seems to have gotten motivation from being displaced at the top of the rankings.

Djokovic is 400 points behind Nadal which is not that much but of course Nadal has nothing to defend until after the Australian Open next year, while Djokovic can't gain any points in Melbourne. From then on Nadal will have loads of points to defend and probably it won't be too long before Djokovic passes him again. I don't see Nadal making an awful lot of points in the indoor season either. He has Basel, Paris, and London left.

The question is whether he will play both Basel and Paris. I don't think he wants to pull out of either, but playing three weeks in a row will be tough and he would want to give it his best shot in London for his first Masters Cup title. He will probably give it his all in Basel and lose around quarters in Paris. The surface there doesn't suit him and the last time he played there was in 2009. I'm not sure he can win any more titles this year.

He is not great indoors and in Basel the field is pretty strong. As far as London goes Murray is not playing and Federer may not even qualify. Even if he does qualify he is not the player he was in previous years. So there is an outside chance for Nadal but it's a long shot. He'd have to avoid Djokovic for one. Then there is Del Potro as well. In fact anyone can be a danger to Nadal indoors. As for the Australian Open next year that should reveal a lot.

But let me get back to today. I think Del Potro was still hung over from his match against Nadal and was a bit flat in the first set, while Djokovic came out in blistering form. Del Potro came alive in the 2nd set and broke Djokovic in his opening service game. He consolidated on serve and held on to his serve for the rest of the set to take it 6-3, even though he faced two break points at 4-2 and 15-40. On to the decider and it was a classic between these two heavy weights.

There were some tremendous rallies and I was reminded of their Wimbledon semi-final which was the best match I saw this year. Del Potro saved two set points at 4-5 and 15-40 and they headed into the breaker where Djokovic just edged it. As was the case at Wimbledon Djokovic just had the slightest of edges, while Del Potro was playing catch up from the start. Hardly anything to choose between the two though and it was a great final.

On a side note Djokovic was acting very weird today and looked very unstable on his feet. No idea what that was all about but it was funny as hell anyway. He has annoyed me a bit of late with his attitude but he remains a character, and the game at 0-1 in the 2nd set with Djokovic serving was pure entertainment. I posted it below so take a look. Just hilarious. Well this coming week is the 250 events in Moscow, Vienna, and Stockholm.

I made a mistake in my last post when I said Wawrinka is playing three more events. He withdrew from Moscow so that leaves only two events for him. That makes the race even more interesting and Gasquet, Raonic, and Tsonga all have chances to improve their probability of qualifying for London this coming week in Moscow, Stockholm, and Vienna respectively. I will try to follow the action and keep you updated. Exciting month of tennis ahead!

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