With a corker of a forehand drive that accelerated down the other end of the court for a clean winner, Novak Djokovic won his first and surely not his last Masters Series title here at the Sony Ericsson Open with a hard fought 6-3 6-2 6-4 victory over the plucky Argentine hero Guillermo Canas.

After climbing to a career high of 10 after reaching the final of Indian Wells, Djokovic has gone one better in becoming the youngest ever champion in the history of the 23 year old event. His reward for his efforts is a cheque for $533,350, the Waterford Crystal trophy and a Masters Shield. When the new rankings come out tomorrow, Djokovic will find himself three places higher at 7.

"It feels great", said Djokovic when asked about how it felt to be the yongest ever Sony Ericsson Open champion. "Every time you win something or you are the youngest player or you make a record, it certainly feel great. It means that your name is in the history of the sport. I am very proud of that. I know that I worked hard throughout all my career to reach this point, and I hope that this is just the beginning of a long career."
Canas, who had to qualify for the event before proceeding to beat 5 consecutive seeded players including the world number 1, will climb from 55 to 31.

In an entertaining final full of gruelling rallies, it was Djokovic who got the early advantage, breaking Canas to love in the opening set for 3-1 with a backhand winner down the line. With games going with serve, he held on to close out the set in 32 minutes when Canas put a forehand into the net after another punishing rally in which the Argentine covered the court like a gazelle to no avail.

With Canas serving at 2-2 in the second set, the Serbian teenager unleashed a howitzer of a forehand drive winner down the line on break point, that zipped by the helpless Argentine at breakneck speed. After holding off 3 break back points in a marathon 22 minute game, Djokovic got the double break insurance to lead 5-2, breaking to love with his trademark two handed backhand winner.

The Serb duly took a two sets to love lead, eventually closing it out on his fourth set point when Canas' forehand netted to Djokovic's relief.

At 4-4 in the third set, Canas found himself break point down when his opponent's forehand approach cleaned the sideline for an outright winner. The nervy Argentine then handed Djokovic his opportunity to serve for the title when he double faulted.

With the score at 30-30, Djokovic found himself at championship point with a rasping backhand passing shot that sped past the stranded Argentine like a bullet.

He took the next point going for broke on his forehand and fell back with sheer joy to a cacophony of jubilant applause from the enthralled audience who had witnessed the birth of a new star.

"On the last point I said to myself, I'm going for my forehand, I don't care", Djokovic said. "If I make a mistake, I break the racquet. And then I just fell to the ground; I was very happy, it was a very emotional moment for me."

Djokovic who gave his Argentine opponent a warm embrace at the end, had words of praise for the man who for the second time in a row had removed Federer from his path.

"I met him here for the first time. He's a fantastic guy; playing with a lot of emotion. I like this kind of players who are always smiling and positive. That's great. He deserves to be in the final; he was fighting for this tournament a lot. You see the Argentinian fans supporting him throughout the tournament. It's always good to see something new in tennis."
Looking ahead to the clay court season, Djokovic is in a very confident frame of mind.

"I'm going there with a lot of self confidence and a lot of expectations right now because I think I'm number 2 in the Race, in the best shape of my life, playing the best tennis of my life. Finals and a Masters Series title, going to clay, which is one of my favourite surfaces. I can play a lot of different styles of the game which gives me a lot of advantage, so I hope I'll do well."

The 19 year old Serb also believes that his success has elevated him to a place where he can legitimately be compared to Federer and Nadal.

"Well, I was always trying to compare myself to the best players in the world, because that's what I want to be one day. Right now I feel like probably for the first time in my career that I am on that level, that I deserve to be one of the three best players in the world right now. I think I proved that with my win over Nadal this tournament, but of course, I still didn't win against Roger, but I hope that moment will come as well. So we're going to see. I'm really happy with my achievement right now, but I hope this is only the start."

Canas came up a little short today, but nevetheless had a great tournament.

"I'm very happy that I came this far in the tournament", he said. "I think today I played a good match, and I think I did everything I could to try and win the match. I think Novak played very well and just played better than me. I had a few chances, not a lot, but a few, and he played very well during those important moments.

"He served very well today and I think it was one of the keys to his victory."

Canas' momentous tournament has been mirrored by momentous events off court with his appeal being upheld by the Swiss Supreme Court in their overruling of the Court of Artbitration of Sport who confirmed his original doping suspension.
This will in all probability lead to the re-examination of his case.

"I'm very happy for this result", he said. "I'm very happy because before I started there in the Swiss Supreme Court, everybody say I'm crazy. But they say that before I start the case too. I'm fighting the law, I'm fighting the court. I'm very happy for the appeal. Maybe my lawyer can talk more about that."

Andre Jones

Crandon Park
Key Biscayne

Post this story to:   del.icio.us  |   Digg  |   Newsvine  |   NowPublic  |   Reddit