Tsonga injury hands Djokovic victory

World number one closer to lifting ninth title of the year.

MONTREAL: Top-seed and world number one Novak Djokovic broke the spirit of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga with a 6-4, 3-0 victory at the ATP Montreal Masters as the Frenchman quit after 59 minutes with a sore right arm.

Djokovic will fight for the trophy against American Mardy Fish. The Serb barely put a foot wrong as he broke Tsonga to end the first set and barrelled into the second by tearing down the game of the burly 13th seed.

“I’m raising my level with each match,” said an ecstatic Djokovic. “Becoming number one has been my goal all my life.”

His opponent Fish is within a win of his second hardcourt title of the summer after beating Serb Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 6-4 in the other last-four encounter.

Djokovic, the reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champion, has now won 52 of 53 matches this season in a run of form which has taken the 24-year-old to the top ranking position.

Serena to face Stosur in Toronto

In Toronto, American Serena Williams easily beat Victoria Azarenka in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 to set up a WTA hardcourt tournament final with Australia’s Samantha Stosur.

Williams needed just 77 minutes to eliminate the fourth-seeded Azarenka of Belarus while Stosur dispatched Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 to reach the final.

She clinched the win by hammering a shot to the back corner that Azarenka could only watch. Williams broke Azarenka’s serve on a double fault to take a 4-3 lead in the second set and never looked back.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15^th, 2011.