Rising Serb beats Federer to revel in greatest victory

MONTREAL: Novak Djokovic said his defet of world No 1 Roger Federer to win the Montreal Masters on Sunday was the greatest victory of his career.

The third-seeded Serb, who beat Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal to reach the final, sealed a 7-6 2-6 7-6 win to claim his second Masters Series title.

"It's an unbelievable win for me," Djokovic told reporters.

"I can say this was an even bigger success than Miami (in March) because I managed to beat the top three players in the world in the last three rounds. It's like a dream come true."

Djokovic attacked Federer throughout, racing to a 3-0 lead and saving six set points at 6-5 before taking the opening-set tiebreak 7-2.

The Swiss hit back to level in the second set thanks to two breaks and recovered from 4-2 down in the third to force a deciding tiebreak.

But Djokovic kept his nerve, playing an almost flawless tiebreak to win it 7-2, sinking to his knees in jubilation when an attempted through-the-legs shot by Federer only found the net.

The 20-year-old, a semifinalist at this year's French Open and at Wimbledon, will move up to No 3 in the rankings on Monday and said he had shown that he could hold his own with the very best.

"It was very important at the start of the year to perform well in the most important tournaments, the major ones, which I did," he said. "I showed it again. I showed my quality and I deserve to be here right now."

Djokovic has made no secret of his desire to become world No 1 but the Serb said time was on his side.

"It's still a long way to go, even though I'm third in the world," he said.

"I can't exactly say that I'm thinking about becoming No 1 next year, in two years. I'll just try to keep my focus and do what I did until now. That's my lifetime goal, to be the No 1 player in the world. But I have a lot of time."

'Insignificant' defeat

Roger Federer described his defeat by Djokovic as "insignificant" overall, but admitted the Serb had deserved to win his second Masters Series title.

"The goal was to win Wimbledon," Federer told reporters. "Done that. Then, try to stay No 1 in the world. It would have helped to have won today but you can't have it all.

"Looking at the US Open, and down the road, the Masters, there's still a long way to go. I can't start being disappointed about just one match."

"I was pleased that I came back in the second set," Federer said.

"But I couldn't play freely from the baseline because I was always in a tough situation whereas against the other players I was able to get a break ahead. (Today) I could never really breathe.

"It was not too bad a performance - but there were too many ups and downs and then I totally missed my chances when I had them."

Federer said he expected Djokovic to be a force at the US Open later this month.

"He's been able to back it up basically for a year now," Federer said.

"If he keeps this up, he's going to create some chances also at the grand slams because he's already been able to come to the semi-finals (French Open and Wimbledon).

"This might be a breakthrough tournament for him."

Agencies

(China Daily 08/14/2007 page23)