Novak Djokovic captures his fifth title of the year at the Serbia Open
The local crowd at Belgrade, Serbia erupted in sheer joy as the home favourite Novak Djokovic defeated Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the final of the Serbia Open on Sunday evening. The world number two took one hour and fifty six
minutes to wrap up his straight sets victory at 7-6(4), 6-2, to bag his fifth championship title of the running ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) season.
The top seed Serb extended his inspiring winning streak to 27 this year after defeating the unseeded Spaniard in the final in front of his home crowd at Belgrade. Djokovic initiated the current ATP season by clinching the Australian
Open and won four straight tournaments to stretch his career title count to 23. He received a bye to the second round of the Serbia Open and had an easy pass to the final as the seventh seeded Janko Tipsarevic forfeited in the semi-final due to injury. Djokovic
is eyeing to claim the world number one spot and reflected that it is his dream to top the ATP tennis rankings.
“Obviously the No. 1 ranking is still far away, even though I’ve been winning every match I’ve played this year and won five titles in a row. If I ever get to that No. 1 in the world it would be a dream come true for me because
it’s been the ambition of my tennis career. But there is (Rafael) Nadal who is playing really well, (Roger) Federer who wants to come back; many players to beat in order to get there.”
The 39th ranked Lopez had already suffered three defeats at the hands of the world number two before, including one at Dubai International Championships this year. The Serb now holds a 4-0 head-to-head record against
Lopez.
Victory for Djokovic didn’t come as easy as it was anticipated and the top seed had to fight through his way through the opening set. He had to face a break point at 5-5 in the first set but eventually clinched the opener in the
tie breaker. Once winning the opening set, Djokovic didn’t look back and raced to victory in the following set by registering two serve breaks.
Lopez had a brilliant start to the opener, without dropping a single game and crafting a break point in the eleventh game. He fully capitalised upon the six double faults from Djokovic but his bleak game led him down in the second
set to route him out of the match. Djokovic had no real trouble overcoming Lopez in the second set and concluded victory at 6-2.
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