Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.

Novak Djokovic is now unquestionably both the tennis ruler of China and the monarch of the fall after winning his third Shanghai Rolex Masters title in four years.

The world no.1 beat France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-2,6-4 in the Shanghai final and after winning last week’s China Open title for the fifth year in succession in Beijing, and he has now been successful in all but one of his last 39 matches in the People’s Republic.

Yet more impressively in the last four years, Djokovic has lost two matches following the US Open. A year ago he was beaten in the Shanghai semi-final by Roger Federer and in 2012 he lost in his opening match in the BNP Paribas Masters at Paris Bercy to American Sam Querrey. He earlier considered withdrawing from the French tournament because his father Srdjan was hospitalized in intensive care, suffering from respiratory problems.
Such bad memories are clearly now a thing of the past for Djokovic who is now clear second in the all-time list of Masters 1000 series champions, pulling clear of Federer with 25 titles and putting himself just two behind Rafael Nadal.

“Tennis-wise, this is the best year of my life,” said Djokovic who has reached the final in every tournament he has contested with the exception of the year-opening event in Doha, Qatar. “Everything is working great but I don’t want to get carried away by success obviously because I want to be playing on this level for many more years to come.

“I’m not thinking about being unbeaten till the rest of the year.  But, yes, that’s an option.  It’s a possibility.”

According to Djokovic’s co-coach Marian Vajda, the Serb is now pushing his opponents to try doing things they are not capable of accomplishing and that certainly appeared to be the case against Tsonga who was buoyant after his semi-final win over Nadal but abruptly brought back to the world of tennis reality.

And Djokovic certainly believes this latest expedition to China, that has not seen him drop a set and be extended to just one tiebreak, is a distinct highpoint of his competitive career.  “I think I’ve played the best tennis ever in these two weeks,” he said. “Energy?wise, I was great.

“I didn’t get tired.  I always had plenty of intensity, concentration, and maintained high performance level from the first match in Beijing to today’s final against Jo. I’m very, very pleased with the way I’ve played.  That’s something that encourages me to keep on going and hopefully maintaining that high level of performance.”

Djokovic will now take a two week break before setting out to defend his title at the BNP Paribas Masters at Paris Bercy.

Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.