Wednesday, 14 May, 2008

Novak Djokovic came from a set down to see off Stanislas Wawrinka in the final of the Rome Masters on Sunday.

The Serbian, who won the Australian Open earlier this year, lost the first set but responded well to secure a 4-6 6-3 6-3 victory.

It was third seed Djokovic's fourth career ATP Masters Series title.

Just over a week ago, the Serb was forced to withdraw from his semi-final match with Roger Federer at the Monte Carlo Masters as a result of a throat problem.

But after battling through the illness en route to a hard-fought third-round victory over Igor Andreev, Djokovic barely had to work to reach Sunday's showdown with the unseeded Wawrinka.

"I didn't think that I'm going to play in the finals against a player who's unseeded, but obviously he deserved to be there," Djokovic said. "He showed his quality."

The world number three, Djokovic won his quarter-final match on Friday when Nicolas Almagro withdrew due to a right wrist injury. One day later, Djokovic advanced again when Radek Stepanek bowed out due to an undisclosed illness.

It would be a much different story on Sunday for Djokovic, who dropped a crucial early break on his way to losing the first set.

"I knew that he's a difficult player to play against on this surface, because if you look at his history of the results, he made his best results on this surface," Djokovic said.

"So he's a specialist, and he didn't have anything to lose. I did what I needed to do. Even though I won in three sets, I think I'm happy in general with my performance in this tournament."

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