'New' Djokovic claims Shanghai title

Shanghai (China): Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic defeated Croatia's Borna Coric 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday to claim a record fourth Shanghai Masters title, closing in on the world No. 1 spot in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings now held by Spain's Rafael Nadal.

It's a remarkable fall from grace for the 20-time Major victor.

Djokovic did not lose his serve all week (47 of 47) and improved to 27-1 since the start of Wimbledon losing only to Stefanos Tsitsipas in Canada. A shock loss in the second round of Miami, was followed by Federer announcing that he was going to skip the Dirt for the second consecutive year.

Coric, meanwhile, was philosophical in defeat after the 600 points earned in the final defeat moved him up to 13th in the world rankings.

"I'm just happy with the whole week". It's all very, very positive, for more than 10 years that I have been coming to China. "I think it was a really good week for me".

"I thought he was better, he had more chances than I had".

During the week in China's commercial capital city, the expected Djokovic/Federer finals did not materialize after the top seeded players had been beaten in earlier rounds. I was not serving particularly well, but that's also because I think he was returning extremely well.

"I was looking up to him since I was really, really young", he said, calling the upset over Federer one of his best results.

Caroline Garcia won her first title of the year as the French player defeated Karolina Pliskova to edge a nervy Tianjin Open final on Sunday.

This was Coric's second victory over Federer in his professional career.

A forehand volley error from Coric gifted Djokovic the opening game of the second set, but the Croatian did well to save four break points in the third game that lasted 11 minutes. He beat the 20-time Grand Slam Champion at Halle this year as well.

The Serb, who had elbow surgery in February but recovered to win Wimbledon and then the US Open last month, said: "Being number two after this tournament is also a great achievement, considering the first four, five months of the year and considering I had the surgery".