Shanghai Masters 2018: Novak Djokovic secures the title

Novak Djokovic remains the Reference Point in current men's tennis: The 31-year-old Serb has won his fourth title on Sunday at the Masters 1000 tournament in Shanghai with a confident 6: 3, 6: 4 victory over the Croatian Federer-conqueror Borna Coric. Djokovic is already undefeated 18 matches in suite. It was his 32nd 1000th and his overall 72nd ATP title.

The ten-year-younger Croat was unable to match his performance against top seed Roger Federer in his first final in this ATP category. Djokovic, however, continued his furious series: Since the quarter-finals in Roland Garros he was in the final in London's Queen's Club, won unexpectedly Wimbledon and brought after a knockout round in Toronto also the title in Cincinnati and his 14th major triumph at the US Open.

"I played at a very high level all week," Djokovic said in a Sky interview. Above all, his serve worked very well all week. "That was one of my best weeks in terms of serve."

For Djokovic it is now definitely the goal to be number 1 in the ATP ranking by the end of the year. Federer will overtake him on Monday and is only 215 points behind Nadal. And in the Race to London, which reflects the performance of 2018 and is actually the most important ranking in the season finale, only 35 points behind the Spaniard. "Yes, I'm very close to Nadal now, of course I want to end the year as number one."