The Serbian said: “I t’s been a great year with many highlights”. “What Novak is doing is just awesome”. He was beaten in just five of his 36 matches against top-10 players over the year.
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In the 2014 semis, they embarked on one of the most draining matches of the season – almost three hours of cut-throat tennis that Federer won 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8/6) after saving four match points along the way.
Third seed Federer beat Djokovic in straight sets in the group stage. After his latest title to close out 2015, the overarching question is whether he can follow this up next season.
Despite his convincing win over Nadal, Djokovic will be wary of Federer having lost their group stage encounter in straight sets.
Early unforced errors and struggles on serve saw Federer broken in his second service game with a forehand into the net. Even on the break points Federer has been 0/2 today.
There are different types and levels of domination, and throughout the week in London, Novak Djokovic gradually hit the highest level of all. It worked for the most part, but it wasn’t enough to make up the deficit.
After such a memorable campaign, Djokovic will take a well-earned break with his wife Jelena and son Stefan before his thoughts turn to emulating this year’s success in 2016 where his main target will be a maiden French Open title.
“I won the last, what, three times we played against each other (before Saturday)”. He was constantly in Djokovic’s face.
It was always going to be an uphill battle for Federer after that. In the often overlooked area of second serves, Djokovic was dazzling. He would continuously engage in the backhand to backhand rallies, where he has a clear advantage.
“It’s not the first good year for Novak”.
Federer had a couple of regrets, saying: “It would have been nice to serve a little bit better early on in the match, play better overall on his second serve, because he does allow you to play on his second serve”. Put Federer’s attacking all-court fluency and tactical guile against the super-fit, super-flexible body and intellect of one of the greatest defenders, and their matches take on the look of physical chess. He responded with a love hold, that silenced the crowd. Whereas Djokovic (like Federer) is a “transferrer” whose power flows from his whole body. For the most part, Federer chose to be aggressive, but he wasn’t always clean in his execution, and Novak was making him pay. On the first set point a backhand overhead saved him, but not on the second. But the match and his resistance finished soon after with a double fault from the Swiss superstar. He went for the serve, and missed it.
“Obviously, after 46 matches and 10 years of professional tennis, I managed to tie my head-to-head score with Nadal”, Djokovic told reporters.
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Winning the first set is an essential element in this rivalry: Federer won the opening set in 21 of 22 career victories over Djokovic and the first-set victor had won the last eight clashes between the pair. This will give the Scot a few breathing space the next time they all gather, at the Australian Open in January, where Murray and Djokovic will start the draw from opposite ends and could meet only in the final.
