Novak Djokovic, from Serbia, returns to Mardy Fish, from the United States, during the men's final at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament, Sunday Aug. 14, 2011, in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Paul ChiassonPaul Chiasson/The Canadian Press
In a season where just about everything has gone right, it was a rare moment where it all seemed to go wrong – as evidenced by a tennis racquet angrily slammed into the ground..
So if American Mardy Fish, the eighth-ranked men's player in the world, can't claim an actual victory over top-ranked Novak Djokovic in the final of the Rogers Cup, he should draw solace from a moral one.
At various points Fish had Djokovic talking to himself, shaking his head, and after a scuffing a weak service return into the net in the sixth game of the second set, the Serb hurled his racquet to the court in frustration.
Djokovic summed up his inner dialogue thusly after the match: "Step in, you fool! Hit that shot!"
Under mostly overcast, blustery conditions, the 29-year-old Fish pushed his 24-year-old opponent as hard as anyone has in a fairytale season that has seen Djokovic win 53 matches and lose just one – to Roger Federer in the semi-finals of the French Open.
But Djokovic is the kind of player who grinds down his opponents with relentlessness, a preternatural ability to get a racquet on just about every shot and his opportunism on key points.
So it was that even on a day when he wasn't at his most dominant, he walked away a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 winner.
"There are times when I am negative to myself. But I think I did hold my composure in important moments today, and I played well when I needed to," said Djokovic, who has been bothered by a minor shoulder problem this week.
Asked to explain his freakish ability to avoid let-downs this season, Djokovic said, "I'm sure that there is going to be bad days. I just feel that now I'm playing the best tennis of my life. … I'm enjoying it. That confidence I'm carrying helps me a lot."
There is, of course, no such thing as a moral victory when you're a pro athlete, and Fish was clearly smarting at his inability to convert any of the seven break points he had in the first set.
"It's really hard to get to these spots in the first place … it's really hard to take. I mean, just so much energy mentally and physically goes into going that far. I've never won one. I want it so badly it hurts," said a disconsolate Fish, who has played Djokovic seven times but has yet to defeat him.
Fish added: "I felt like I had chances today … but he's overall just so solid. He puts his second-serve returns, doesn't miss those, puts them deep, kind of puts you on your back foot. He returns so well and put so much pressure, so much pressure on you."
The good news for Fish is that he appeared in his third straight hard court final and has won 17 of 20 matches since losing in the third round at the French Open (he is the hottest ATP player not named Djokovic).
He is essentially assured of being the top American seed at the U.S. Open.
And he was close to an upset. Until the fifth game of the third set.
Fish, who had kept Djokovic off-balance with his forays to the net, was broken at love, smashing an overhead into the net on break point.
The 3-2 edge was the opening Djokovic needed, and he quickly capitalized.
After it ended, the players shared a long embrace.
"We are very good friends off the court, so we joke around all the time. He told me that I should give him one of these tournaments sometime," Djokovic said with a smile.
And he has reason to smile.
Djokovic became the first player to win five ATP Masters 1000 events in the same season – Sunday's was his ninth title of the season, and he has now won 12 matches in a row.
In the doubles final, top-seeded American twins Mike and Bob Bryan were upset by France's Michael Llodra and Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic, the fourth-seeded pairing.
It was a closely-contested match, Llodra and Zimonjic won the first set 6-4, dropped the second in a tie-break, 6-7, and won the match tie-breaker 10-5.