Novak Djokovic from Serbia reacts during his match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga from France during semi-final play at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament Saturday, August 13, 2011 in Montreal. Tsonga was forced to abandon the match with Novak Djokovic then facing Mardy Fish from the United States in the final. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonPaul Chiasson/The Canadian Press
There was a moment early in Saturday's second set against the world No. 1 Novak Djokovic when France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga asked the chair umpire to call for the trainer to treat a sore forearm that had been bothering him all week.
By then, Djokovic had reeled off four consecutive games with his relentless attacking game - and some figured Tsonga might have been better off asking for the tour psychologist at that point. Because no matter what Tsonga did in the match - and he played most of the first set at an exceedingly high level - he ultimately had no answers for Djokovic's steadiness or consistency.
Demonstrating the relentlessness that has characterized what is now a 52-1 run this year, Djokovic advanced to the Rogers Cup final against American Mardy Fish with a 6-4, 3-0 (retired) victory over Tsonga, the tournament's No. 13 seed.
Tsonga held a career edge over Djokovic, so it was thought he might give him something of a test in the match - and he did, for a short time anyway. The match was on serve in the opening set and appeared headed to a tiebreaker when Tsonga faltered momentarily when he faced a break point at 30-40 in the 10th game. Tsonga, trying to vary his game by making frequent forays into the net, dumped a backhand volley into the net on Djokovic's first set point.
From there, Tsonga dropped the first three games of the second set and then retired due to an injury to his right forearm.
It means Djokovic will try for his ninth victory of the year - and second in the Rogers Cup - Sunday afternoon against the sixth-seeded American, Mardy Fish. The match ended so abruptly that the crowd at Uniprix Stadium looked shocked and frustrated by Tsonga's decision to retire. Even Djokovic, who will be after his fifth Masters title of the season against Fish, seemed surprised by the sudden turn of events.
Tsonga explained his decision to default by saying: "I have pain on my arm and I've had this since three days. At the end, at 1 0, after that, it was really difficult for me to hit the ball well and enough hard. That's why I took this decision.
"The pain is worse day after day, hour after hour on the court. You know, I don't have the pretension to beat Novak without my arm."
According to Djokovic, he didn't realize Tsonga was having any issues until after the first game of the second set.
"Look, we played I think high quality tennis for an hour, first set," said Djokovic. "It was even. I think I had more chances on his service games than he had on mine. I was returning really well, had a lot of break ball opportunities. The break came at the right time.
"When you have a set advantage, obviously mentally, you know, it gives you a big relief."
As for Sunday's match against Fish, Djokovic was cautiously optimistic, even though he'd crushed him 3 and 1 in Miami earlier in the season. The difference in the court conditions, Montreal is faster than Miami, will be a factor in Fish's favor. Beyond that, according to Djokovic: "There is different tactics with every player, that's for sure.
"Mardy is one of the rare players that plays serve and volley nowadays. I think these conditions, which are a bit faster, are quite suitable to his style of game. He's been winning his matches quite comfortably. He's been serving extremely well.
"But I think if I return well, as well as I did in the last two matches, I have a good chance."
Earlier in the day Fish, booked his trip to the final with a straight sets win over the unseeded Serbian Janko Tipsarevic.
Fish wasn't sure who he would play when he held his press conference, but most of the questions focused on the likelihood that he would face Djokovic. Even Fish freely concede, the run Djokovic is on currently is among the greatest in the history of the game.
"I played Novak in Miami," said Fish. "He kicked my butt in the semis."
Fish has played a lot of serve-and-volley in this tournament, and because of the speed of the court, he intends to try that again against Djokovic.
"He's going to beat me in every baseline game we play," continued Fish. "We're not going to play baseline games, fortunately for me.
"Yeah, I mean, look, I'll have to play my absolute best and then some. If I play the way I played today, I'm certainly capable of beating a lot of players. This is a long ways into the tournament now and you can see the finish line. So there's no holding back anymore.
Fish is the first American to get to the Rogers Cup since Andre Agassi in 2005 (when Agassi lost in three sets to Rafael Nadal in Nadal's first-ever hard-court victory). Fish has now won 11 of his last 12 matches during the ATP North American hard-court season and this marks the first time in his career that he's reached the semi-finals in three consecutive tournaments.
No American has won the Rogers Cup since Andy Roddick did it in 2003.
After needing three sets to dispatch both Gulbis and No. 14 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, Fish had a comparatively easy time of it on centre court against Tipsarevic. He raced off to a 3-0 first-set lead and never the let the Serb - who bears an uncanny resemblance to the U2 front man Bono - back in the match.
With Djokovic getting through, it will set up an interesting final, given that Fish will be the first opponent he's met this week willing to play a varied brand of tennis.
"I win a lot of matches because I can play a lot of different styles I think. A faster surface like this is gonna suit my game perfectly," said Fish. "A hard court, you know, where I've got my footing pretty good, but something that really moves through the court, my serve moves through the court well. You can come in. You can stay back a little bit, as well..
"To be this successful, I have to play really well, too, and I've done that.
Fish's rankings have risen steadily as his commitment to fitness improved these past few years. He has dropped 30 pounds over the past two years by altering his diet, as so many players on the circuit have of late. Pizza, said Fish, is what he misses the most from among the former dietary staples that he's purged from his menu.
Two years ago, after knee surgery that stemmed largely from the fact that he was overweight, Fish tipped the scales at 203 pound. Now he's down to a compact 175 pounds.
"I needed to change some of my ways just to be able to get back on the court at a relatively high level," explained Fish. "The most important thing we changed was just my discipline around my diet. But the discipline that it took to stay focused with that every single meal, every single day, was tough. That translated over to my tennis and my work ethic on the court and off the court, making the right decisions around tennis."
Fish's improved athleticism was evident in the match against Tipsarevic, where he played an aggressive brand of tennis. Every time, he got a short ball from Tipsarevic, he followed it into the net. Of course, the difference between Tipsarevic and Djokovic is that Djokovic doesn't give up many short balls.
Fish has surpassed Roddick as America's best hope for the 2011 U.S. Open and among the U.S. players that he came up with, is essentially the last man standing.
Roddick has struggled with injuries this year and the likes of Taylor Dent and Robby Ginepri are either retired or hanging on, moving between the main tour and the Challenger circuit.
Fish, meanwhile, is in the midst of a career year. He won earlier in Atlanta, defeating John Isner in the final. He made the finals in Los Angeles a couple of weeks back, losing to Gulbis in three sets. He was a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon before falling to Nadal and made the semi-finals of the Masters stop in Miami, where Djokovic knocked him out. Overall, he was 30-15 for the year, including a 20-9 record on hard courts, before winning his first four matches here.
In the men's double final, the U.S. pair of Bob and Mike Bryan will face the fourth-seeded duo of Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic. Llodra and Zimonjic defeated Max Mirnyi and Canada's Daniel Nesotr 6-3, 6-4. It was an especially difficult loss for Nestor, coming as it did against Zimonjic, his former partner.
The Bryans, meanwhile, won easily over Tomas Berdych and Florian Mayer 6-2, 6-1.