Novak Djokovic has had the year every tennis player dreams of, he’s secured the world year end number 1 sport for a 4th time in 5 years, reached all four Grand-Slam finals, winning three and has amassed a staggering 78-5 win/loss ratio, and with only 4 players managing to do the seemingly impossible tasking of beating Novak this year. Djokovic is pushing the gap between himself and the rest of the field wide open, proving there is no longer a ‘big four’.
His most recent title in Paris saw Djokovic demolish Andy Murray like he was playing a qualifier. In just 90 minutes Djokovic secured his tenth title of 2015, as well as winning his 6th Masters title of the year, the first player to do so in the same season.
The affectionately named ‘Nole’ is enjoying one of the most successful years in tennis history, and had already become the first player to reach 14 consecutive ATP tour-level finals in a calendar year with only Ivan Lendl having better record with 18 finals.
With three out of the four players to have beaten Djokovic this year all competing at the ATP World Tour finals in London next week, all eyes will be on the world #1, who still believes there is room for improvement, a scary thought for the rest of the field.
The Serb has not lost a match since the Cincinnati final in August and will be the overwhelming favourite to win his final tournament of the season. Djokovic will be joined in London by Roger Federer, the only player to have beaten the world #1 more than once this year. Despite Federer’s two triumphs over the Serb this year, Djokovic got the best of Federer in both Wimbledon and US Open Grand-Slam finals.
Joining Djokovic and Federer in London are Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, Stanislas Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych, David Ferrer and Kei Nishikori. All oh whom have beaten Djokovic in the past, however these days the Serb is a completely different animal, and he clearly enjoys the indoor London hard-court, as he has won the 4 times, and has been unbeatable there for the last 3 years.
Despite playing the Tour Finals with a field of Grand-Slam winners and finalists, Djokovic’s mental and physical capability is so far ahead of his competitors that it would take some truly amazing play in order for anyone to come close to beating him, he has gone from strength to strength since winning the Australian Open in January, having an even better end to the year than he started.
He is outplaying the competition. He looks stronger, fitter and more assertive than his opponents. His physical attributes have allowed Djokovic to record 15,285 ranking points, almost double that of Murray (8,470) and Federer (7,340) and has an incredible three times as many points as Nadal with 4,530.
These days Djokovic’s biggest challenger is himself, always trying to break new records and improve in every way possible, dismantling some of the games ‘greats’ along the way. Whether he wins the Barclays world tours finals or not in 2015, it’s just a matter of time before he becomes the greatest player to ever pick up a tennis racquet.
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