The Big Four faced each other in semi-finals and finals around the globe and kept the spoils to themselves. The Swiss maestro has had an excellent year, capturing titles with regularity and reinventing his game by adding new attacking layers (the SABR – the Sneak Attack by Roger – was the talk of the tennis tour in autumn). But that is only the beginning.
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On Sunday, he capped it all off and concluded a career year that eclipsed even his sublime 2011 with a magnificent immolation of Roger Federer in the ATP World Tour Finals. He won doubles gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with Stan Wawrinka, but lost the singles final to Andy Murray at the London Games in 2012, shortly after beating the Briton for his seventh Wimbledon title on the same Centre Court at the All England Club.
But Federer is already shaking off the loss and plotting strategy for next season. 2013 was probably the worst, where he reached the finals of only two tournaments and won only one.
As he moves further and further ahead of the chasing pack, Djokovic is chasing records and history.
“Obviously sitting here with this trophy alongside me, I couldn’t ask for a better finish of the season”. It’s been a long season, but the best of my life.
“I’m trying to enjoy every moment on the court, cherish every moment competing at such a level”. I think this tournament, as well.
Moreover, whereas you once felt that Djokovic could be a little fragile mentally, he’s become unflappable in the biggest moments.
But Sky Sports expert Annabel Croft believes she saw cracks in Federer’s focus as he faced-off against Djokovic, who had previously defeated him in this year’s Wimbledon and US Open finals.
Murray could have been forgiven for turning his thoughts to the final in Ghent when he dropped the opening set and was broken twice in the second set. Federer was doing a better job of taking care of his own serve, but he wasn’t making any inroads on Novak’s.
He missed a routine shot when a chance opened up to make it 3-3 and Djokovic made him pay by breaking again to take the set.
He has now leveled his head-to-head record (22-22) with Federer for the first time in his career, a day after pulling level with Rafael Nadal (23-23). At least this time he put up a decent show even if the result was inevitable.
“It’s no fun to lose but it’s better to lose than not to play at all like previous year”, said Federer. We’re going to come back next year stronger, healthier and hungrier to do this again because we know what the feeling feels like. Fantastic year all round.
David Ferrer, on if he could have done anything differently against Wawrinka: “I tried to do my best”. A few points were insane. Novak deserved the win today. And at times – many times – it seemed as if Federer was one backhand victor away from jamming his foot in the door, getting right back into the match.
Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau beat them 6-4, 6-4 in the Saturday semifinals to claim the top spot and followed through Sunday with victory over the No. 8-seeded team of Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea.
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Nishikori, after losing to Djokovic 6-1, 6-1: “Very ashamed with this score”.
