A couple of pieces of cardboard were brandished at the back of Crandon Park yesterday which, held together, displayed the message “We Miss You Roger.” Guillermo Cañas put paid to the notion of the world No 1 competing beyond the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open and a frisson of pleasure will have flowed through the Swiss and many of his peers yesterday when Novak Djokovic became an undisputed star, beating Cañas 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in a mesmerising final.

“I am so proud of my country, I love you,” was Djokovic’s response to his victory, one built on an irresistible belief in his destiny. Those words will have been greeted with a reverential magic in Belgrade, where he flies for a Davis Cup tie today and, quite probably, a feeling of “what if” in Britain.

A year ago, at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow, the red carpet was rolled out for the Djokovic family, who, having beaten their heads against a brick wall over Serbia’s inability to get its act together, sought interested parties abroad. More than pleasantries and business cards were exchanged but, inevitably, there were many complexities to the deal and any prospect of Djokovic emigrating came to nought. Dijana Djokovic, Novak’s mother, still recoils at the memory of her son’s interrogation at last year’s Wimbledon.

But at least we now know what we have missed. Djokovic rises to No 7 in the rankings on the back of a tournament success completed on the warmest day of the event against a player widely recognised as the most finely honed workhorse of the tour. How crucial it was for the teenager to start well and not let the nerves that troubled him in the final of Indian Wells a fortnight ago against Rafael Nadal, of Spain, restrict him again.

Indeed, Djokovic’s flow was apparent from the first rally, although he controversially captured Cañas’s service in the fourth game with the aid of a centre-line foot fault that so maddened the Argentinian that it took him ten minutes to get it out of his system. By then, the Serb was into his stride, the drop shot that has so bamboozled Andy Murray in the semi-final on Friday, used to devastating effect.

But the match was surely won in the sixth game of the second set. Djokovic had sneaked ahead with a break and knew how important it was to secure his next service game.

It lasted 20 minutes, involved 22 points, three break points, a challenge, so many rallies of such brutal effort and ended, almost inevitably, with a winning Djokovic drop shot. Even then, Cañas was not totally crushed, indeed the teenager looked the wearier of the two in the third set before he summoned a final, superhuman effort.

The thought of Cañas winning a title of this prestige was not one to enamour his fellow professionals, for whom the stain of a doping charge does not come out simply because you wash your kit a few times. Ivan Ljubicic, the Croatian president of the ATP Players’ Council could barely bring himself to shake hands after his defeat by Cañas in the semi-final. Having learnt of Cañas’s displeasure at not getting a wild card into the main draw — his request was made too late — Ljubicic called into question any generosity to those who had been found guilty of what amounted to cheating.

“I feel like it’s like a guy coming out of prison, and you’re just giving him a gun straight away. There are mixed feelings,” Ljubicic said. It is safe to say that Djokovic’s was a popular victory.

Serena Williams, having lost the first seven games of the women’s final to Justine Henin on Saturday, having saved two match points, and seeing a 3-0 lead in the final set clawed back by the indomitable ability of the Belgian, had enough in the tank to celebrate an improbable 0-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory.