World No1 Novak Djokovic won his 600th ATP match yesterday after defeating Canadian seventh seed Milos Raonic 6-2, 6-3 to win the Paris Masters for the second straight year.
The 27-year-old Serb also extended his advantage over Roger Federer in the race for the year-ending No1 spot while Raonic could take consolation that his run into the final booked his place at the World Tour Finals in London.
Djokovic comfortably defended the crown he won last year, when he defeated David Ferrer, the same stage where he recorded his maiden title in the French capital in 2009.
In addition, the Belgrade native extends his indoor winning streak to 27 matches, with his last defeat back in Paris two years ago.
“This week has been incredible and my first tournament since becoming a father 10 days ago so I dedicate this victory to my wife and son,” said Djokovic, whose wife, Jelena, gave birth to baby boy Stefan on the eve of the Paris tournament.
“Congratulations to Milos, I’m very happy for him that he qualified for London but today I played the best tennis I’ve played all week.
“It’s not easy against a player with such a big serve but I played an exceptional match and I’m very happy to win this trophy. It’s my first tournament since becoming a dad and it’s been a great pleasure to play here.
“I got a lot of returns back and just overall extremely happy with the performance. The key points of the match today was to get as many returns back in play. It’s easier said than done when somebody serves regularly around 220 kilometres an hour.
“He uses that as his big weapon and throughout the week that was his best shot. He relies on the serve very much in his game. I knew if I can make him play an extra shot, maybe he’s going to drop the percentage of first serves and I can step in and maybe take initiative on the second.”
Djokovic paved the way to win the first set early on as he raced into a 3-0 lead and never looked back.
Despite taking an injury time-out, the seven-time Grand Slam winner kept the momentum going as he again broke early in the second set to put a stranglehold on the match at 3-0 up in the second set.
The Montenegro-born Raonic, who was in his second Masters final after losing in 2013 against Rafael Nadal in Montreal, saw his serve tamed by Djokovic and he was unable to test Djokovic.
“It’s been an incredible week for me,” said Raonic. “Congratulations to Novak for his win and also the new addition to his family. Now I’m going to focus on London and I’m going to fight hard over there.
“I thought he played some great tennis, neutralised my serve well. Even when I was able to open him on the backhand side, he was moving really well. He was always getting two hands on it. It was never sort of defending with a slice.
“He didn’t really give me too many looks. Even on the break chances I had, he played them well and he just made life difficult for me today.”
Djokovic’s 600th win puts him fifth on the all-time list of active players behind leader Federer on 991, Nadal on 706, Leyton Hewitt who rests on 611 and David Ferrer who has 602 ATP victories.
The Wimbledon champion also extended his points advantage over Federer in the battle for number one to 1,310 points with 1,500 on offer for an unbeaten run to the World Tour Finals title.
However, 17-time Grand Slam champion Federer can also pick up points when he plays the Davis Cup final for Switzerland against France in Lille beginning on November 21.
The other seven qualifiers for London are Federer, Stan Wawrinka, Andy Murray, Kei Nishikori, Tomas Berdych and US Open champion Marin Cilic.
