The reigning Wimbledon and US Open winners Novak Djokovic are the big favourites at the ATP finals starting Sunday in London.
By Florian Heer from London
One more day until the official start of the biggest indoor tennis tournament in the world. The restaurants and shops are open, but many things still seem a little bare in the o2-Arena in London’s Greenwich district. Sure, the fans are missing. Still. Last construction work will be done here and there so that the stage for the men’s season finale will be ready on Sunday.
Novak Djokovic will be the top favourite in the race. The 31-year-old Serbian has had an eventful season. Still in June, after an injury break and a few poor results during the ATP Masters tournaments in spring, he was only to be found on world ranking position 22. Since last week it is clear that Djokovic will finish the season at the top. He is the first player since Marat Safin in 2000 to have managed the feat of storming from outside the top 20 to 1 in a year.
“This is probably the ultimate challenge: to be at the top of the ranking after the ATP finals. I am very proud of what has been achieved, especially under the circumstances this season,” Djokovic said in London.
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“After my elbow surgery in February, it didn’t look like it could jump out at the end of the year. Not only because of the bad ranking, but also how I acted on the pitch. But at no time had I lost the faith of being able to return. It took time and the last five months have been perfect. In addition, Nadal was unfortunately unable to compete at the tournaments after the US Open due to injury,” said the two-time Grand Slam champion in 2018.
His new, old coach Marian Vajda, who received the ATP Coach-of-the-Year Award this week, also played a big part in the Serbian’s comeback fairy tale. “Marian is more than a coach to me. Even when we weren’t working together, we were always in contact”, reported Nole: “We talked about many different things. We have a special relationship and I hope that this will remain so until the end of our lives. The fact that he is now officially at my side again as a coach is a special treat for me, for which I am very grateful. When the collaboration with Andre Agassi and Radek Stepanek was over, I had to decide on a direction to take and I felt I needed something familiar around me again.”
Djokovic will enter the race for the last title of the season on Sunday evening. In the group “Guga Kuerten” he will compete with the ATP finals debutant John Isner. “This will be an easy task,” Isner joked when asked what it would look like against Djokovic.
The 33-year-old US-American quickly became serious again after the laugh. “Novak Djokovic is the man to beat,” Isner finally said. “I’m the underdog. I have nothing to lose. I’m just gonna go outside and try and have some fun.”
The extent to which the ATP finals will take place in London beyond 2020 is also under discussion. Djokovic was one of the few players to say in the past that moving to a city can bring about a positive change.
“I don’t want you to misunderstand me,” Djokovic said in response, “I have celebrated great successes in London and love playing here. However, I think that the concept of the ATP finals should be subject to a certain rotation. The tournament was supposed to move around. It’s the biggest event the ATP owns. The best eight players in a unique group mode. This is a great opportunity to promote tennis worldwide. Ten years in one place can already be too much. But it has nothing to do with London,” explained the man from Belgrade, whose family itself was involved in the organisation of a tournament.
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Djokovic was much shorter in touch when asked whether the controversially discussed show fight with Rafael Nadal in Saudi Arabia would be cancelled. “It won’t happen,” Djokovic clearly put on record. Whether Nadals injury was the reason for this, one wanted to know further. A quick “yes!” finally ended the subject.