ATP World Tour: Djokovic the real highlight of phenomenal 2015 season
The highly successful 2015 ATP World Tour season finished with an exclamation mark when Novak Djokovic beat evergreen champion Roger Federer to secure a record breaking fourth consecutive season-ending crown at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.
The stunning victory by Djokovic was his fifth overall success at the season finale and as well as bringing down the curtain on the ATP World Tour for the year in a spectacular fashion, it also capped off one of the greatest ever personal seasons in the history of the ATP World Tour.
Djokovic captured an incredible 11 titles, including three Grand Slam crowns and an unprecedented six ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophies, to finish the season with an 82-6 win-loss record and record prize money of $21.59 million (Dh79.30 million).
The World No. 1 performed his magic in front of 262,694 fans who flocked to The O2 over the eight days, and they were delighted to hear that the world’s most successful indoor tennis tournament will remain at The O2 for another three years, through 2018. The attendance at The O2 brought overall global on-site attendance to 4.5 million fans across the year, an all-time record.
Congratulations also to Wimbledon champions Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau, who captured their first ever season-ending doubles title to close out a sensational year in which they also finished as the year-end No. 1 doubles team.
It wasn’t just the current superstars that enjoyed the action in London this year as many of the games’ former greats from the 1970s such as Stan Smith, Ilie Nastase and Manuel Orantes among others, were able to reconnect with the current players with the launch of the Finals Club.
The ATP also took the time to recognise the stellar career of Lleyton Hewitt. The 34-year-old Australian retires in Melbourne in January and has a proud record to look back on. He was the yearend ATP World Tour No. 1 in both 2001 and 2002 and won the season finale in those years in Sydney and then Shanghai. He also won the US Open in 2001 and then added Wimbledon the following year and leaves the tour with a formidable tally of 30 singles titles overall.
In addition to the on court action, there was plenty going on behind the scenes as well, as the ATP enjoyed a stellar 2015 season in commercial sales.
During the year, the ATP secured new agreements with Maui Jim, Infosys and Peugeot and also made a number of new announcements during the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.
The ATP and Emirates announced a new partnership that will see the awardwinning airline elevate its status to Premier Partner of the ATP World Tour from 2016. Emirates will also be the official airline and the new five-year agreement represents the biggest sponsorship in the history of the ATP.
New partnership
Le Sports joined ATP in another new partnership, with China’s digital sports broadcasting company becoming the official online video partner and platinum partner for a five-year period beginning next year.
In addition, through ATP Media, the broadcast arm of the ATP, Le Sports has acquired the exclusive digital media rights to the ATP World Tour Masters 1,000 and 500 tournaments (excluding Beijing) in China over the same period.
The ATP has also launched the exciting MyATP powered by Vixlet, a new social networking app built around passions, connecting tennis fans’ enthusiasm for the ATP World Tour and its players and tournaments in a way never seen before.
With such a successful season behind us, we can now look forward with great anticipation to the coming 2016 season.
The top five ranked players in the year-end Emirates ATP Rankings are Djokovic, Andy Murray, Federer, Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal. No doubt their rivalries will continue, but they will also face stiff competition from other challengers during the coming year.
In addition to the seasoned stars, challenges could well come from up and coming players like Milos Raonic, David Goffin, Bernard Tomic and Dominic Thiem, who all finished the year ranked in the top 20 and with their eyes firmly focused on moving further up the ranking ladder. It will also be fascinating to keep an eye on the continued progress of the likes of Hyeon Chung, Borna Coric, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Nick Kyrgios and Alexander Zverev, players who have all shown vast potential.