Novak Djokovic will go for back-to-back titles at the Canadian Masters on Sunday. The defending champion at this week’s series 1000 tournament will face Richard Gasquet of France in the championship match. Djokovic will be gunning for his 12th Masters Series title, while Gasquet is into his third Masters Series 1000 final having lost in each of his first two attempts.
Gasquet, to his credit, has taken full advantage of the soft draw he received in Toronto. The Frenchman has played well against very good competition, but so far in Canada this year he has not faced anyone of exceptional caliber. That is mainly due to the fact that several top players either missed the Canadian Masters entirely (ie. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and David Ferrer) or pulled out mid-tournament (ie. Andy Murray).
The only player that Gasquet defeated en route to the final that had previously won a Masters title was Tomas Berdych, the winner of the 2005 Paris Masters. Gasquet, even with a loss threatens to crack the Top 15 on tour with the Monday ranking update. With an upset victory over Djokovic, Gasquet could be buzzing for a top 10 ranking for the first time since June of 2008.
Djokovic and Gasquet have met seven times in tour recognized matches with the Serb winning six of those matches. Gasquet’s lone victory against the current World No. 2 came in 2007 at the Tennis Masters Cup (hard). Since that time Djokovic has won four straight matches against the Frenchman and nine straight sets.
Djokovic has not faced much of a challenge in Toronto this week. He dropped one set against Tommy Haas however other than that, Djokovic’s tournament has been smooth. If he was tired following a fairly packed schedule over the last two weeks and a bit, I think Janko Tipsarevic would have put forth a better challenge in the semifinals. As it went, Tipsy only took five games off of Djokovic.
The 2012 Toronto Masters may not be remembered as a great event with so many key players missing the tournament or failing to make strong runs. However, the prize money is just as real and the ranking points count just the same. For Djokovic, he can stay close to Federer in the rankings with a title. For Gasquet an upset victory could make him a serious contender for the year end ATP World Tour Finals. The championship match is scheduled to take place at 7pm ET on Sunday night in Toronto.
Prediction: Djokovic in straight sets.