ONE-MAN SHOW
Djokovic downs Fed to cement dominance
Somehow you doubt that Novak Djokovic will ever turn the o2 Arena into Belgrade-onThames, colonising it in the way Roger Federer does for one week per year.
But winning titles is not a popularity contest, and for all that this felt like a mini-Zurich at times, the love of the crowd was not enough to save the 34-year-old Swiss last night.
over one hour and 20 minutes the 28-year-old Serb merely emphasised just how superior he is to the rest, by winning the Barclays ATP world Tour Finals with a 6-3, 6-4 victory in the last match of the regular season.
It was fitting enough if not exactly dramatic. You can hardly argue with a player taking the year-end finale when he has compiled one of the all-time great seasons in men’s tennis.
Djokovic’s supremely functional game, one it is almost impossible to punch a hole through when he is fully firing, has delivered on a grand scale. everyone else is contesting second place, and one by-product of last night’s result was that Andy murray will finish 2015 at that spot in the rankings.
he will not get carried away by that and nor should we, because Djokovic will end with almost as many ranking points as murray and Federer put together.
Before last night’s final, ATP chairman Chris Kermode delivered some impressive figures on how the tour was faring overall, but there must be a sneaking concern that at its pinnacle it is becoming as processional as Formula one.
Not that Djokovic has a go-faster racket to help him, and for that reason his dominance is even more remarkable. his honour roll this season includes three Grand Slam titles and one final; six of the nine masters level trophies and now the year-end championship for the fourth straight time.
The year’s figures keep spilling out like a fruit machine which has seen the jackpot pay out. his match record is 82-6 and in official prize money alone he has earned £13.88 million.
The one major that continues to elude him is the French open, and if he will have one concern about this week it is that Rafael Nadal seems to have got his mojo back.
he is missing a gold medal too. ‘The olympics is going to be very important next year,’ said Djokovic. ‘I didn’t expect this season but it has been as close to perfection as I could get. I always gave my best and demanded the most from myself.’
he has reached the final in all but one tournament and the only players who have beaten him are monster-serving Ivo Karlovic, Stan wawrinka, murray and Federer (three times).
one of the latter’s successes came on Tuesday night, but then the format at this event forgives a defeat and after the first set Djokovic seemed to lose a little motivation.
You always suspected that it would be different when it came to the weekend, and that was the way it turned out, much to the disappointment of the last bumper 17,000 attendance of the week.
No wonder Federer described the o2 as being ‘almost like home’ when he received his runners-up bauble afterwards.
Fortunately for his army of admirers there is no sign of him stopping, and only this week he announced plans to play in the Stuttgart tournament for the next two years.
Last night Federer faced the dilemma that everyone else does when pitted against the extraordinary agility and retrieving skills of Djokovic, which is the need to cut the margin of error to hit a winner.
As a result, he made 31 unforced errors to his opponent’s 14.
The Serb’s supreme defensive skills always stand out and that can sometimes overshadow the wondrous efficiency of his serve.
he landed two thirds of his first serves in last night, while winning 16 of 19 points on his second — a phenomenal figure against someone as good as Federer.
Thus it was never likely that the veteran would prevail in the end. he did miss a break point at the start which would have put him 2-0 up, and that slip might have planted some self-doubt.
Djokovic broke straight afterwards and was off and away. he could have won the second set more easily if Federer had not saved three break points at 3-4 with some glorious flourishes, but it was holding off the inevitable.
Federer still deserved better than to lose on the ignominy of a double fault.
There may be no respite for a while. Djokovic never seems to get injured and next up is the Australian open in January — which he has won four out of the last five times.