Djokovic’s Shanghai delight

Top seed Novak Djokovic retained the Shanghai Masters title by edging sixth seed Juan Martin Del Potro in a thrilling three-set final.

The Serbian toppled the Argentine 6-1 3-6 7-6 (7/3) for his seventh ATP crown of the year, giving his hopes of overhauling Rafael Nadal for the end-of-year world number one spot a slight boost.

Djokovic dominated the first set, breaking Del Potro’s serve in games two and four.

However, Del Potro responded well in the second set and stormed into a 3-0 lead thanks to a string of stunning winners. He then overcame a 0-40 deficit in game seven by winning five straight points and went on to close out the set.

Del Potro saved two match points at 5-4 in the decider to force a tie-break, but the world number two held his nerve to clinch his 12th consecutive match win.