So so so this is the final part of my posts on the ATP World Tour Finals from the o2 in London, and its been quite a week of tennis with some excellent matches, but it has now drawn to a close, and in this post I'll look at the final between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.
The final promised to be quite an encounter as Djoko and Fed have meet on 28 occassions prior to this, with Roger leading their head to head 16-12, and in this match he was looking for a record 7th year end championship title, whereas Novak was looking for his second. As for the match itself it very much lived up to its billing, as from the first set we were treated to some scintillating tennis from both men. But it was Federer that made the stronger start as he broke Djokovic straight off, and come out firing really strong to take a 3-0 lead. However after holding serve, Djokovic went on to win the next 2 games to level the scores, and after that he secured a break to make it 5-4, but on serving for the set, Federer broke back once again, and the match went into a thrilling tiebreak, with more breaks of serve, and despite saving a set point with an amazing shot, Federer went on to hand a set point to Nole who gladly accepted and took it to win the set. In the 2nd set, after a scrappy first game Novak was broken by Federer who maintain his break, but at 5-4, serving for the set, he let Djokovic back in, and at 6-5, with Fed serving to stay in the match, Djokovic broke Federer a final time to clinch his 2nd season end championship title, with a 7-6(6), 7-5 victory.
This was an excellent finale to a great year of tennis, and both players played some incredible tennis for the 17,500 strong crowd, although I do get the impression there were more Roger fans than Novak ones! As it could well have been 12,000 Federer fans and 5,000 Djokovic fans for all we know! And I have to say I really thought that Federer would win this one, as he started out really strong and he appeared to keep saving break points. But in the end its credit to Djokovic's tenacity that he was able to hang in there and keep plugging away, applying pressure on Federer's serve, which shockingly dropped to about 36% at one point in the 2nd set! But despite all that Federer has had a great season, as he aimed to become the World No.1 again, and for three months or so, he did just that, he also claimed 6 titles, one of which being his 7th Wimbledon title, and his 17th grand slam overall. So I'm sure we haven't seen the last of Federer and we can never write him off, despite this loss, I'm sure he will be back next year.
As for Djokovic well with this win he has really has re-established himself as the World No.1 and he is certainly that, make no mistake, and come 2013 we can expect more greatness for him, and I personally think he will win the Australian open next year for starters. And I think its safe to say that he can remain at the top of the game for quite a few years yet to come, and its no coincidence or a one-off that he had an incredible 2011, as he is the real deal, and he is here to stay at the top. But despite all that, it has to be said there is now one man that remains a real threat to Djokovic, and that is Andy Murray, who has already proven this year that he can beat Djokovic in the big matches, and by winning the US Open title, he beat one of the greatest hard court players to have played the game in doing so. And that says alot about Andy, and throughout 2012 we have seen them develop a terrific rivalry, which I hope carries on into 2013, and it may yet become one of the great rivalries in the sport, so I look forward to seeing how that progresses. But in the meantime Djokovic deserves a big congratulations for his victory and ending what has been an excellent season for him in style.
And that's just about it for men's 2012 tennis season, all that really remains now is the Davis cup final which takes place this weekend, which will see Spain and the Czeck Republic battle it out to win the prestigious team cup title, with David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych being the top singles players respectively, so that promises to be quite a tie.
So its been a great season for the ATP tour in 2012, and we have seen some superb tennis throughout, and let's hope 2013 get's even better. And that's it for now, I will possibly post up another entry about the Davis cup final, but until then that's it for my tennis posts.
So bye for now!!
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