LONDON – Novak Djokovic put the finishing touch to a magnificent season by beating Roger Federer 6-3 6-4 to win the ATP World Tour Finals on Sunday for the fifth time in his career.
The Serbian underlined his complete dominance of men’s tennis with another immaculate display to become the first player in the year-ending tournament’s 46-year history to triumph four times in a row.
Federer brought the tournament to a close in anti-climactic fashion with a double-fault, although not as much as a year ago when he pulled out of the final with back injury.
After a modest celebration, Djokovic walked back to his chair and wrote “And now for vacation” in Serbian on a camera lens. How he deserves one.
The 28-year-old has stomped through the season to leave his rivals trailing in his wake – securing the year-end world number one ranking weeks before the London finale.
He won three of the year’s four grand slams, beating the evergreen Federer in the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals to take his career haul to ten, and would have celebrated the rarest of ‘calendar year slams’ had it not been for an inspired Stanislas Wawrinka in the French Open final.
Not only that but he won a record six Masters Series crowns and reached 15 consecutive finals after losing to Ivo Karlovic in the Doha quarter-finals at the start of the year.
He ended the year with an 82-6 win loss record – half of those defeats coming against Federer – including Tuesday’s 7-5 6-2 group stage defeat by the Swiss that snapped his 23-match winning streak and three-year unbeaten run indoors. (Reuters)
