“But with the Wimbledon title and Olympic gold behind him, he perhaps reset himself after the US Open and just said, ‘It’s available and I’m going to go for it'”. With both players able to clinch the year-end top ranking this week, Djokovic needed a good start to boost his efforts.
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“Even though I lost the first set, I thought I didn’t do too many things wrong”.
But the 12-time Grand Slam victor reacted in feisty fashion when asked about his state of mind heading into the Tour Finals, which he opens against Austria’s Dominic Thiem on Sunday.
He reaches the semi-finals with three round-robin wins and Djokovic is runner-up with one round-robin win.
Djokovic admitted at the time he was “lucky” – had he hit the nearby line judge, who was forced to take evasive action, he could possibly have been disqualified.
Consistency is certainly something that Cilic has lacked, with his forehand at times prone to leaking errors and his serve can be more hit and miss than it probably should be for a man of his stature. I started swinging more freely in the second set. But Djokovic then sent a lob just long that put things back level at 9-all.
An attempt at a lobbed victor went wide, however, and Thiem was finally able to wrap up a set which lasted an hour and 16 minutes with a fine forehand into space.
He almost tagged his coach Boris Becker with a ball seemingly struck in the direction of his players’ box, and was given a code violation by chair umpire Carlos Bernardes. The resilience he showed by dominating the final 2 sets against Thiem proved that Djokovic is out to defend his 4 consecutive finals championships in London.
Djokovic has been in a slump since winning the French Open in June to complete his career Grand Slam, raising questions about his appetite for continued success.
Djokovic couldn’t break Thiem’s serve.
Despite some flashy winners from Thiem down the stretch, it wasn’t enough to halt Djokovic who secured another break to go up 5-2.
He battled back in resounding style, however, romping through the next two sets to seal a 6-7, 6-0, 6-2 victory. “We will see him start better in his next match and he is going to build”. “The crowd here is really respectful of the tennis and gives great support”.
“One of the years, I got knocked out in the group stages on percentage of games won or something like that, it was unbelievably close and no-one really knew what had happened”. “It’s faster than it has been in the past so that changes the way you play the matches a little bit”, Murray, 29, said.
A tiebreak was required to separate the players and it saw Thiem’s backhand come to the fore, yet his nerve continued to be undoing.
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Hiccups aside, including a cut finger that required treatment, the 12-times grand slam champion was happy to get a victory that now turns the spotlight on Murray who plays Marin Cilic in his opening match on Monday.
