By Canadian Press

Novak Djokovic advances to Rogers Cup final, will face Kei Nishikori

Jul 30, 2016 | 2:00 PM

TORONTO — It’s going to be about long rallies and baseline play in the Rogers Cup final.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia will face Japan’s Kei Nishikori in the championship match after a 6-3, 6-2 win over France’s Gael Monfils on Saturday night. Djokovic and Nishikori have very similar playing styles, relying heavily on the return game to tire out their opponents and force them into mistakes.

“I know that he loves to take the control of the rallies and just to kind of overpower his opponent from the back of the court,” said Djokovic, who feels his game is centred on the baseline. “But I know what to do tactically. I have played him many times. I will try to prepare for that match and eventually get a win.”

The odds are stacked against Nishikori for Sunday afternoon’s match. He has never won an ATP Masters 1000 event and Djokovic owns a 9-2 record against him. When they last met in a final, Djokovic beat Nishikori 6-3, 6-3 to win the Miami title on April 3.

“I haven’t beat Novak for a long time on hard court so I think it’s going to be a great challenge for me to play Novak again in the final, because we played in Miami and he dominated the game,” said Nishikori. “So I hope I can get revenge this time.”

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On Saturday, Djokovic relied on his superb return game to win the first set. One rally saw him split 39 shots with Monfils, with the Frenchman putting the ball too deep to give Djokovic a break point.

Monfils gave Djokovic a 4-2 lead in the first set on an embarrassing misplay. Monfils had an easy overhead smash lined up, but instead spiked the ball on his own side of the net. After the match, Monfils said the long season was catching up with him.

“I get some few pains but hopefully not major,” said Monfils, who has lost all 11 matches he’s had with Djokovic. “But you learn even when you are tired like this. Big match like this, you learn. And that’s a great lesson for me for the next time I will play against (Djokovic) again.”

The capacity crowd at York University’s Aviva Centre was clearly partial to Djokovic, with nearly a dozen Serbian flags in the stands and fans chanting “NO-LE” — Djokovic’s nickname — before the start of every game. Monfils had his own supporters, with sporadic calls of “Allez-y Monfils!” between serves, but nowhere near the loud cheers Djokovic earned.

“Oh, it means the world, of course,” said Djokovic of the fan support. “I’m very grateful for the support of Serbian people who live here and of course Canadian crowd and all the international people coming to watch this tournament. It’s one of the biggest tournaments we have in sports.”

Djokovic’s dominance over Monfils continued in the second set, with him establishing a sizable lead again based on his mastery of returns. Monfil’s final shot went wide, with fireworks exploding from the top of the stadium and Djokovic thrusting his arms out from his chest to give the fans his love after the win.

Earlier, Nishikori defeated Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka 7-6 (6), 6-1 to advance to the final. Three unforced errors were Wawrinka’s undoing in the first set, with a double fault robbing him of the advantage on serve, then a forehand way wide of the court — almost into the stands — giving Nishikori the tiebreak set point.

Wawrinka’s mental errors continued in the second set with Nishikori holding advantage for the fourth game. He missed a wide-open volley, sending the ball out of bounds when Nishikori had ceded an entire lane of the court to him.

Obviously frustrated, Wawrinka leaned on the net after the misplay, shaking his head then pulling his shirt over his face as he walked back to the baseline to the laughter of fans.

“Just missed an easy shot of the match. That’s it,” said Wawrinka with a smile. “You don’t feel good on the court when you miss that kind of shot. It can happen, you know. At the end of the day we can all miss easy shots.

“That’s not the most important shot — I was already quite down in the second set. It wasn’t easy for me to try to find any solution.”

Croatia’s Ivan Dodig and Brazil’s Marcelo Melo will face Britain’s Jamie Murray and Brazil’s Bruno Soares in the doubles final earlier Sunday.

Dodig and Melo beat the Romanian team of Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau 6-4, 6-3 in the day’s first semifinal, while Murray and Soares beat Canadians Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 6-7 (5), 10-7.

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John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press