Ivan Ljubicic must know how Mardy Fish feels.  Three times Ljubicic reached a Masters finals, and three times he came up second.  To be fair, Ljubicic played opponents like Federer and Nadal.   Then, in 2010, Ljubicic had the tournament of his life in Indian Wells.  He beat Nadal.  He beat Djokovic.  And in the finals, instead of meeting Roger Federer, he faced Andy Roddick.  And he finally won a Masters 1000 title.  For a guy like Ljubicic where reaching a semi of a Slam is a big goal, winning a Masters is just as big a deal.  Only a handful of players win Slams and for folks like Ljubicic, there’s often a tiny window where they can be viable for a Slam.

Mardy Fish was entering his fourth Master 1000 final.  His first was early in his career.  This was 2003 in the finals of Cincy where he lost in his best chance against Andy Roddick in a tiebreak in the third set.  Then, in 2008, he made the best run at a Masters 1000 in terms of quality of opponent.  He beat Davydenko, Hewitt, Federer, and Nalbandian, all of whom had been in the top 3.  He lost to Djokovic in the final, unable to complete the dream tournament.

Since then, Mardy lost a lot of weight and his ranking has jumped into the top ten.   Mardy reached the Cincy finals for the second time last year, but lost to Roger Federer.   And here he was in the Montreal finals, facing someone he had never beaten, Novak Djokovic.

Djokovic looked a bit unsteady at the beginning, needing to fight off break points.  Once he was able to hold to an early game, he was able to turn around and break Fish twice.   It seemed like this would be a straightforward win.

However, Djokovic’s game slipped some as Fish played solid tennis and got an early break and was able to win the second set.

The third set started a bit like the first with Djokovic struggling a touch, but able to hold, then he got an early break.  He kept the break until 5-4, 40-0.  Fish managed to win 3 points in a row to get it back to deuce, but Djokovic served well and closed out the match and title.  Fish has at least played quite competitively in the Masters 1000 finals he’s been in, but just not been able to push through.  To be fair, no one expected Fish would beat Djokovic given the streak he’s been on, and the fact that he did was partly a tribute to Fish as well as a little rustiness in Djokovic’s game.

During the match, a fellow in the upper stands appeared to be choking.  Apparently, he was able to get over it, and was smiling and talking to officials afterwards.

Djokovic has now won a record five Masters 1000 titles in one season, and becomes the first player to win as number one since Pete Sampras did it nearly 20 years ago (Nadal, if you’re curious, lost in the US Open to Andy Murray in the semis in 2008).

Djokovic looked a touch shaky, not nearly as solid as he’s normally played.  However, a switch to new shoes seemed to improve his attitude.  He’s not playing nearly as well as he did prior to the break, but he still has another tournament to turn up the quality of his game some more.

Djokovic finds himself in the same half of the draw as, surprise, Roger Federer.  While this is very common in Slams (Federer and Djokovic in the same half), it is about 50% in Masters 1000 events.  That is, Federer has appeared on Nadal’s side as well.

These Masters events are a bit tough because they are back-to-back after a long rest.  The top players then take a week off, though some of the lower ranked players will play in North Carolina.   This event replaced New Haven which had been on the tour for many years, but is no longer on the ATP tour.

Tipsarevic, who reached the semis, should be in the top 20 by Monday.