Novak Djokovic hailed the contribution of his team – led by coach Boris Becker – after finishing the season of his life on top of the world by beating Roger Federer to win the ATP World Tour Finals in London.
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For the first time in the almost five-decade history of the season ending ATP tour finals, a player has won the title four times in a row.
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. Federer sparkled on occasion- finding the touch with his divine backhand a couple of times, saving a clutch of break points to extend the contest on another. He won three majors, stopped only in Paris by Stan Wawrinka who, for one glorious afternoon, was residing on another planet.
Swiss maestro Roger Federer has warned world-number one Novak Djokovic, saying that it will be hard for the latter to repeat his glorious year like 2015.
The result means after 90 matches against Federer and Nadal, Djokovic is tied with both. Djokovic’s serve was solid again and although he did not hit as many clear winners – six to eight – he took two of his four opportunities to break and did the job in 39 minutes. He lost the next three points to face two break points and, missing three straight first serves, the Serb broke for the set, 6-3. As Djokovic pushes himself harder to be the best of all time, he is hunting down Federer and Rafael Nadal. This is the kind of domination that was Federer’s hallmark in his best years.
Another break arrived as Djokovic clinched the first set, but Federer responded well in an enthralling second.
Djokovic: “It’s been an incredible season”.
“I’m very proud for achievement”, Djokovic said. I played some good tennis, even in the final.
Winning three in a year has proven to be a monster challenge as well, with only Jimmy Connors in 1979 and Roger Federer in 2006 able to. It was close. First six games were tough, to be down 2-4.
Days after the Swiss swept the top seed in Tuesday’s round-robin meeting snapping Djokovic’s 23-match winning streak in the process, Djokovic had all the answers in every phase of the game. Doesn’t need much, you know.
So this victory produced the flawless end to a near-perfect year for the stand-out player of the season, as Djokovic was quick to admit: “Absolutely”.
“Again, I’ve played maybe the best tennis of the season in China”.
“The players and the captain thought it better, under the circumstances, to practise together here rather than off-site on a different surface there, and plan to practise on the match courts on site tomorrow”.
With his fifth World Tour Finals championship on Sunday, Novak Djokovic has just completed arguably the most dominating men’s tennis campaign since Rod Laver’s Grand Slam year of 1969.
“I’m just trying to enjoy every moment on the court, cherish every moment that I play competing on such a level”. With the crowd rallying behind fan favorite Federer and Novak starting to look frustrated, it appeared this could be a turning point in the match.
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Another win over Djokovic Sunday won’t add to Federer’s Grand Slam total, but it could give him a huge momentum boost heading toward the Australian Open in 2016.
