Djokovic Upsets Federer For Rogers Masters Crown

Serbia's Novak Djokovic capped a dream week at the Rogers Masters on Sunday afternoon in Montreal, capturing his second ATP Masters Series shield of the year with a 7-6(2), 2-6, 7-6(2) championship victory over Roger Federer.

Although the competition was strong throughout the two-hour, 13-minute match, the penultimate game of the first set was one of the more pivotal games. Federer served for the set at 6-5 and even led 40-0, but squandered six set points in total (five on unforced errors) to allow Djokovic his chance in a tie-break. And the 20-year-old Serbian didn't let down, winning 7-2 to take a one-set lead over his 26-year-old Swiss foe.

The second set was all Federer, who threatened on Djokovic's first two service games then finally pulled away with four straight games (including two breaks) from 2-2 to win the set 6-2 and send the championship bout into a deciding third.

The No. 1-seeded Federer dropped his opening service game in the third but would break back for 4-4 later in the set, and the two headed for a tie-break again. And once again it was the No. 3-seeded Djokovic who came through in the tie-break, improving his season tie-break record to 22-7 with another 7-2 win to clinch victory.

With his wins over World No. 3 Andy Roddick and World No. 2 Rafael Nadal, in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively, as well as his first win in five career meetings with Federer in the final, Djokovic becomes the first player since Boris Becker at Stockholm in 1994 to defeat the Top 3 players in the ATP Rankings at the same tournament. Thirteen years ago, Becker beat No. 3 Michael Stich in the quarterfinals, No. 1 Pete Sampras in the semifinals and No. 2 Goran Ivanisevic in the final. On Monday, Djokovic will return to No. 3 in the ATP Rankings.

Djokovic now owns four ATP titles, having already won his first ATP Masters Series shield in Miami in March as well as other ATP events at Adelaide and Estoril. This was his third ATP Masters Series final of 2007, having also finished runner-up at Indian Wells (to Nadal). All three of those finals have come in North America.

Federer falls to 4-3 in ATP finals this year. He was seeking his 50th career ATP title and was also looking to become the third player in the Open Era to win at least three Canadian titles. Ivan Lendl won six titles (1980-81, 1983, 1987-89) and Andre Agassi three titles (1992, 1994-95).