Western and Southern Open: Novak Djokovic defeats Raonic in final to equal Masters record

World number one Novak Djokovic ensured his unbeaten record in 2020 stays intact as he defeated Milos Raonic 1-6 6-3 6-4 to win the Western and Southern Open.

The Serbian tennis powerhouse also equalled Rafael Nadal’s record of 35 Masters 1000 Series titles as he came back after dropping the first set to win in New York.

World number 30, Milos Raonic, however, took the first set in 31 minutes.

But Djokovic levelled and then came from 2-0 down in the deciding set to clinch his 80th ATP title in exactly two hours.

Since the creation of the Masters 1000 in 2009, Djokovic is the only player to claim all nine events – known as the Career Golden Masters – and this victory means he has achieved the feat twice.

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Former world number three Milos Raonic won the last of his eight ATP titles in 2016 and was seeking to become the first unseeded winner of the event.

He is yet to come out victorious against Djokovic in 10 previous meetings but produced some superb strokeplay to dominate the opening set.

And despite coming back after injury problems that saw his ranking plummet, he still managed to take the opening set 6-1 in just 31 minutes.

But Djokovic came to life in the second set and a vital break of Raonic’s monster serve in the sixth game allowed him to level up.

Djokovic has now made it 11 wins from 11 matches against the Canadian and there was a reason for that. He completely negated Raonic’s delivery, claiming successive breaks to grab the decisive final set.

Djokovic played the longest match of the tournament when he took more than three hours to beat Roberto Bautista Agut in Friday’s semi-final and illustrated his stamina and resolve to extend his record in 2020 to 23-0.

The event was moved to New York to reduce unnecessary player travel before the US Open starting on Monday. It was usually held in Ohio.