Novak surmounts drama to end year with ATP Finals title
MUMBAI: Prior to the ATP Finals, Novak Djokovic had played just 10 tour events—discounting the Laver Cup—this year. He was packed off from one country, refused entry into another. His season’s only Grand Slam victory carried no ranking points. Yet, the Serb qualified among the top eight players for Turin’s season-ending finale. And signed off winning it.
Welcome to Djoker’s theatre of the bizarre. Few boss it quite like him. Djokovic equalled Roger Federer’s tally of six ATP Finals titles defeating Norwegian Casper Ruud 7-5, 6-3 in the final on Sunday.
He dropped just one set—a tiebreaker to Daniil Medvedev— through the week, belying his tournament seeding of No 7 and world ranking of No 8.
The title pushed Djokovic three places up in the rankings on Monday, but even the four sitting above him would probably agree he has been the player to beat, especially in the season’s latter half.
After returning to the tour a couple of months after his Wimbledon title, Djokovic won three of the four tournaments he entered, only losing a close three-set final to Holger Rune at the Paris Masters. Overall, Djokovic has won five titles this season, matched by Carlos Alcaraz, the world No 1. Djokovic has a 42-7 win-loss record, a better percentage than Alcaraz and the best among all players this year.
“I always see myself as the best player in the world,” Djokovic said after his title in Turin. “I have that kind of mentality and that kind of approach. Regardless of who is across the net, regardless of what the surface is, regardless of what season it is.”
Regardless of the vaccination status… oh wait. “We don’t need to go back. We know what happened,” Djokovic said.
It’s worth pointing out what more may have been for the 21-time Grand Slam champion.
Due to his refusal to get the Covid-19 vaccine, Djokovic missed the Australian Open and US Open.