Well, so much for having to shake off the rust. After taking a short time away from the game for the birth of his first child, Novak Djokovic wasted little time in showing once again that he is without question the premier player in the game today. While Milos Raonic managed to knockoff both Roger Federer and Tomas Berdych enroute to the second ATP Masters 1000 Final appearance of his career, the hard-serving Canadian was nothing more than a speed bump for the World No. 1 during Sunday's finale of the BNP Paribas Masters.
Djokovic celebrated the new addition to his family in style with a 6-2, 6-3 victory in defending his 2013 crown without even breaking much of a sweat. The win also marked the 600th of the talented Serb's brilliant career, joining Federer (991), Rafael Nadal (706), Lleyton Hewitt (661) and David Ferrer (602) as the only players currently on tour who have achieved the feat. While the third BNP Paribas Masters title of his career should allow the seven-time Grand Slam winner to close out the year as the top seed in the game, it was the manner in which he rolled through the entire week that was so impressive.
Despite having what was an extremely difficult draw in his return to action, Djokovic did not drop a single set on his way to his sixth championship of 2014 and fourth Masters 1000 title of the year. After getting past Philipp Kohlschreiber in his second round match, the twenty-seven year old proceed to dismiss the trio of Gael Monfils, Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori to reach today's showdown with the No. 7 seed. As good as Milos looked in beating Federer during their quarter-final match, the Canadian No. 1 was simply in over his head in this one.
Having just qualified for the season ending event in London all of two days earlier, Raonic came into the final with a ton of confidence but it made little difference in how things unfolded on the court. To his credit, the twenty-three year old played well but was unable to to push the man standing on the other side of the net in any way shape or form. With Barclays ATP World Tour Finals only two weeks away and having watched Federer cut into his lead for top spot in the rankings, Djokovic needed an impressive showing in Paris to send a message to the rest of the field and he proceeded to do exactly that.
With 1.500 points still up for grabs in seven days’ time in London, Roger Federer still has an outside shot of finishing the year as the No. 1 player in the world but something tells me Novak Djokovic has no intention of giving up that honour anytime soon. One thing we can be sure of, is November 9th cannot come soon enough.