World No. 1 Novak Djokovic inched closer to his fourth Rogers Cup title after pulling off a 6-3 6-2 conquest of Gael Monfils in the semi-finals on Saturday.
The top-seeded Serb looked rusty on serve initially, but found the rhythm as the match progressed to end his French opponent’s dream run, who had been on a nine-match winning streak that comprised of the last week’s title triumph at the Citi Open in Washington.
Djokovic committed a double fault at 1-1 to hand Monfils an early break in the first set. He, however, broke back right thereafter before securing yet another break at 3-2 to take the opener.
The Serb raced to a 4-1 lead in the second, courtesy of two break-point conversions, as he held his serve throughout to extend his head-to-head record by 12-0 against Monfils.
“In this tournament it (second serve) is not working very well but in general in past couple of years it has served me very well,” admitted Djokovic (via ATP World Tour), who had five double faults to his name from the 77-minute battle.
He added: “You do have a certain mental comfort knowing that you have had plenty of success against your opponent. That’s not a guarantee that you can win the match. It actually makes him more eager to come out and play his best tennis.”
Djokovic will look to win his 30th Masters title overall when he trades rallies with Japan’s No. 3 seed Kei Nishikori (defeated Stanislas Wawrinka) in the Sunday’s title-clash.
