Novak Djokovic has won the Indian Wells title winning over Mardy Fish in the Final in 3 sets, 6:2 7:5 6:3. With Ana Ivanovic (Novak's compatriot) winning Indian Wells title in women's competition, out of fun some have referred to Indian Wells as Serbian Wells.
Novak won 9th ATP title and proved his the most dominant player this season. After winning the first Grand Slam of the season, Novak dominated in the season's first Masters Series tournament. In front of 18.000 spectators, Novak won first set with 6:2.
In 2nd Novak won 2 break games and led 4:2 and it seemed it will be a fast finish of the match with Novak on serve. Though, Mardy made the match more interesting equalling to 5:5 in games, Mardy won a break and after a powerful service game won the set 5:7 to become the only player this year in Indian Wells who won a set against Novak.
3rd set started with 40:0 for Mardy on Novak's serve, then Novak made 3 aces for 40:40, 1 service winner, and a point for 1:0 lead in games. In the following games Mardy (Fish) was caught up in Novak's net and didn't manage to get out. Soon it was 3:0 for Novak, 4:1, 5:2, 6:3.
Novak talked about the opening game of 3rd set: 'That was a crucial moment and it was the turning point in the whole match, if I didn't come up with the three aces, it could go either way'.Novak's thought about his season up to now: 'It's been a dream start, of course. Before I started playing this season, I said that my two goals is to be consistent with the results, I reach the Masters and hopefully win one Grand Slam. I did all that in very, very small amount of time'.
Novak: 'But again, I don't want to stop here, even though I've been playing fantastic, and I'm lucky enough to have a lot of important tournaments on this surface, which suits me the best, and I just try. I'll try to keep going in Miami, and I'm defending champion there. But coming up from Indian Wells as tournament winner, it's much easier to play'.
Mardy: 'It would be really nice to take this momentum and take this confidence into next week, because next week is just as big of a week for me. I didn't play last year. I think I put myself in a nice position now around 40 in the world with not a match to defend until August 19th, which I checked'.
Novak won additional 150 ATP points as he played in the Final last year (that earned him 350 ATP points) and is now a step closer to the leading duo, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Title brought Novak $550.000 in prize money, while Mardy won $277.000 in prize money also emense 350 ATP points which rocketed him from previous World #98 position to #40 position in this morning's, Monday March 23rd, ATP rankings.
