and not just another solid Cyprus Cup showing

LONDON - Novak Djokovic capped off a phenomenal autumn by defending his ATP World Tour Finals title with an impressive 6-3, 6-4 win over Rafael Nadal in a duel between the two dominant players of the season on Monday night. Theres no doubt Djokovic is the man to beat on indoor hard courts. And just for the record, his 22 consecutive wins to finish 2013 matched top-ranked Nadals best stretch of the year. Djokovics winning run started after a U.S. Open final defeat to Nadal, and during a span when the Spaniad replaced him atop the rankings. "The most positive thing that I can take from those 2 1/2 is the fact that I managed to regroup after a few big losses against Nadal, especially in Roland Garros, U.S. Open final and Wimbledon final," said Djokovic, who became the seventh player to win the elite season-ending tournament at least three times. His victory in London denied Nadal the only big trophy missing from his glittering CV. Having produced one of the most memorable comebacks in tennis, Nadal lost in a deciding match for the second time at the tour finals and missed the chance to join Andre Agassi as the only players to have won all four Grand Slams, Olympic gold, the Davis Cup and the year-end tournament. "Its not going to change my career, winning or losing today," Nadal said. "I am not very disappointed. I know that I was not the favourite for the match, even if I tried with the right attitude, in my opinion, fighting for every moment, trying to be positive in every moment, even if the match was not going the way that I would like." Mondays defeat was a strong warning to Nadal, who overhauled Djokovic for the No. 1 ranking last month, that his Serbian rival will be ready to extend his form into next years Australian Open, where he is the three-time defending champion. Djokovic has now beaten Nadal 10 times in 19 finals and is unbeaten since losing at the U.S. Open in September. "After the US Open final, of course, I needed to take things slowly and see and analyze what I did wrong, especially in the matches against him, to understand what I need to do in order to win against him," Djokovic said. "I think the results are showing that we had a great improvement in the last 2 1/2 months." Djokovic returned superbly from the start to move his Spanish rival around the court and prevent him from dictating the points. Nadal, playing on his less favourite surface, hit only nine winners and was broken three times. "If I can say about one thing that makes the difference in todays match was the serve — I didnt serve well, he served well," Nadal said. "So in this kind of court, first shot is very important, and he did that first shot much better than me." Nadal return to the No. 1 ranking came on the back of a stunning comeback from a career-threatening knee injury. Since returning in February, the Spaniard has won 75 matches —losing only 7 —to win 10 titles including the French Open, the U.S. Open and five Masters 1000 events. But Djokovic proved again that he still has the upper hand on hard courts by extending his head-to-head winning record to 13-7 on that surface against Nadal. "Year-end No. 1 is deservedly in Nadals hands because he had two Grand Slam wins, the best season out of all players, the most titles," Djokovic said. "I think thats no doubt, cannot question that. I tried to put aside the calculations and the rankings after U.S. Open and just tried to focus on one tournament at a time, one day at a time. That kind of attitude has helped me to get to where I am at this moment." Djokovic made an impressive start, hitting powerful groundstrokes to keep Nadal well behind his baseline while limiting his own mistakes. Returning well, the Serb made the most of two of Nadals backhand errors to break in the second game. He had another chance in the fourth game after Nadal double-faulted, but was unable to convert. Nadal got into the match from that point. He put Djokovic under pressure with his huge forehands in the next game and two unforced errors from the Serb allowed him to break back and then level at 3-3. But Nadal faltered in his next service game as he served a double-fault at 30-30. After a stunning exchange, Djokovic broke for 5-3 following a series of volleys at the net. Standing in the middle of the court, the Serb opened his arms and screamed as the crowd erupted in cheers. Djokovic sealed the first set with an ace. Appearing supremely confident, Djokovic raised his game further in the second set, pinpointing his shots on the lines to make life more difficult for Nadal after breaking in the third game of the second set. The resilient Spaniard saved two match points and kept encouraging himself until the end, but a final forehand too long gave Djokovic the title. Djokovic will now focus on the Davis Cup final later this week in Belgrade, where he will lead Serbia against defending champion Czech Republic. Wholesale Running Shoes Fast Shipping . As Valanciunas was whistled for a rare technical toward the end of the third quarter - a result of waving his hand at an official after being called for a foul - Lowry pulled the Raptors sophomore aside, corralling him by his jersey and patting him on the back. Cheap Running Shoes China .J. - Several people have collapsed in an overcrowded New Jersey train station while waiting in long lines to get to the Super Bowl. http://www.cheaprunningshoesfreeshipping.com/ .com Tour title, closing with a 6-under 64 for a four-stroke victory. The 22-year-old former North Texas player finished at 12-under 268 at Panama Golf Club and earned $112,500 to jump from seventh to second on the money list with $171,500. Clearance Running Shoes Online . To get things started, heres a little photo tour to get you acquainted with all the main characters. Discount Running Shoes . Felix Pie had an RBI double earlier in the inning, as Baltimore rallied for three runs to overcome a 3-2 deficit. J.J. Hardy had two hits and Matt Wieters chipped in with an RBI double for the Orioles, who pushed their winning streak to three games.NICOSIA, Cyprus -- It wasnt the result he wanted but John Herdman was pretty happy about how Canada finished the Cyprus Cup womens soccer tournament. Diana Matheson and Sophie Schmidt scored second-half goals as Canada rallied for a 2-1 win over Ireland to secure fifth place. It marked the first time in six years the Canadians hadnt reached the tournament final, but Herdman was encouraged by how his team dealt with that adversity. "The team showed a real resilience and that second-half performance was just phenomenal," he said. "This is a very unique group of women, when the chips are down they really can pull it out of the bag. "You think theyre out and then they come back and keep fighting but I thought the second half wasnt just about fight. They played just some wonderful football. The Irish were on the rocks for 45 minutes and we knew it was just a matter of time." Ireland opened the scoring early in the first half before Matheson tied it at the 56-minute mark. Schmidt highlighted a wild finish, scoring at the 90-minute mark. Canada, ranked seventh in the world, has traditionally fared well in this event. The national team won the tournament three times and was a finalist the last two years. But that streak ended with a 2-0 loss to England on Monday. And considering all the Canadians needed to advance was a draw, Herdman admitted the defeat was a bitter pill to swallow. "Absolutely," he said. "In previous tournaments we dodged the bullet of having England or France in our qualifying group and when we ended up (with England) in our group, we knew that was the game that was going to make the difference. "Getting the girls up for this one was tough because we were pretty devastated. But we tried to focus on this being a World Cup and just losing the final game in our group but still having qualified with another game to play and what strategies wed have to put in place to get things pulled around and in focus. It was a pretty good two days for our team." Despite the fifth-place finish, Herdman said the Canadian team learned many valuable lessons at the tournament. "We struggled, and Ill tell you why we did against the English and Irish defensive tactics," Herdman said. "The English held a really deep defensive block and hit us on the counter-attack, they just preyed on our sloppy play and within seconds were firing shots or crosses and I think that was the real learning this year. "Against a zone or 4-4-2 we did well, we did well against Italys 3-5-2 but against that deep 4-5-1 block, which is also what the Irish did, we struggled.dddddddddddd. But what was exciting about that last game was we were able to get hold of a tactic and the players really made a big push." The 2014 and 15 seasons are big ones for Canadian womens soccer. In August, the world under-20 tournament will be held in four cities -- Edmonton, Moncton, Montreal and Toronto. Then in 2015, Canada will host the womens World Cup with games in Edmonton, Moncton, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and Winnipeg. And following Canadas stirring bronze medal victory at the 2012 London Summer Games, there will be plenty of expectations on the national teams shoulders in 2015. That fact certainly isnt lost on Herdman, who said the squad has a definite plan in place. "Its always been said Canadians are great in the power phase, theyre good at defending and theyre good at the counter-attack," he said. "But the ability to control and develop possession through the thirds of the pitch, thats the strand thats been missing. "Weve put a massive amount of focus in that and at times it has been to our detriment. We couldve went into the England game and said, Look, well drop a deep block, well launch it from the keeper every time we get it because the only focus is about winning the tournament, but we didnt. We played our way." Herdman said playing their way meant a definite eye to the future and not just another solid Cyprus Cup showing. "If we were going to win the tournament, we were going to win it a certain way that would also help us be more successful against teams in the womens World Cup playing a brand these girls wanted to be recognized for," Herdman said. "Even after we went up 2-1 against the Irish, the girls were still doing things trying to play a certain style of football where normally youd try to kill a game off. "At this stage of our development I think thats OK but when it comes down to the World Cup, well be in a stage where we know how to play those games like we did at the Olympics." So for Herdman, his measurement for success at the Cyprus Cup goes way beyond wins and losses. "I think we definitely got better, our statistics were way better than theyve ever been," he said. "There are things we wanted to work on post-Olympics to get the team ready for 2015 and those have improved. "Its just now chemistry and understanding when we play our way how that fits against the models of other teams. Weve got a year-and-a-half to figure all that out and get the plans ready." ' ' '