A Strong Finish For Djokovic

The year has ended on a similar note to how it started for Novak Djokovic after his Shanghai Masters Cup triumph. The Serb defeated Nikolay Davydenko 6-1, 7-5 to land a cheque for $625,000 and a Mercedes.

Djokovic remains world number three but this win brings him closer to second placed Roger Federer. He compared the tournament win to that of a grand slam because of the fact the top eight players in the world are competing for the title.

Overall it has been another year of progress for Djokovic with his first grand slam coming in the Australian Open way back in January. Some people may have expected him to progress further after that triumph and put even more pressure on Nadal and Federer.

Next year will see him be a major player at all the grand slam events as he attempts to continue improving and ultimately break the stranglehold of Nadal and Federer by moving into the top two.

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Shanghai Masters Cup Semi Finals Take Shape

The semi finals of Shanghai Masters Cup appear to be taking shape with Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Nikolay Davydenko all securing their places this week. The one semi final spot left will be filled by either Roger Federer or Gilles Simon. It is all or nothing for Federer in his next match against Murray. If he wins he goes through but if he loses then Simon progresses into the last four.

This tournament has seen the early departures of both Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick through injury. Regular knee pain is something that Nadal learns to live with but this injury appears to be more than his usual knee trouble. This setback also looks like forcing him out of the Spanish Davis cup team and bringing the curtain down on what has been a very successful season for him.

The withdrawl of Andy Roddick was more of a surprise with the American pulling out due to a sprained right ankle. Roddick has questioned the amount of professional tennis in a typical season that lasts for 11 months of the year.

From 2009, the leading players will be expected to compete in eight out of nine Masters 1000 events. Apart from odd isolated spells throughout the year tennis players only have the month off in December. It is a tough job being a highly paid, globe trotting sportsman but hey someone has got to do it.

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Murray Retains St Petersburg Title

Fresh from his success in winning the Madrid Masters last week Andy Murray became the first Briton since Mark Cox in 1975 to win two titles in a row.

As tournaments go this was not quite on a par with his achievement last week but it is another tournament win nevertheless and confirms that Murray has well and truly established himself on the Men's tour.

Murray was actually the top seed having won this tournament last year and played great tennis all week without losing a single set. In the final against Andrey Golubev who is the leading tennis player from Kazakhstan the Scot dropped just two games with an impressive 6-1, 6-1 scoreline.

The end of the tennis season may be on the horizon but Murray will probably not want the year to end because of how much his game has developed in recent months and the impact he has made which has made everyone in world tennis sit up and take notice.

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Murray Wins Madrid Masters

Just when it was starting to look like we were going to end up with a Roger Federer versus Rafael Nadal final both players suffered shock defeats which left Andy Murray ans Gilles Simon to contest the Madrid Masters final.

This is the tournament that is famous for hiring stunningly beautiful local models to act as ballgirls and this year was no exception and it has to be said their ball skills were faultless throughout the event.

Murray was the strong favourite going into this final and duly took the first set 6-4 without too much trouble but the second set was a different matter with Simon putting up some fierce resistance although the Scot did eventually prevail winning 7-6.

This has been a tremendous year for Murray with several tournament wins and more importantly a consistently high level of performance against the top players in the men's game.

The only question mark against Murray relates to is his injury record so if he can stay fit then 2009 promises to be an even better year with a grand slam tournament win being the ultimate objective.

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