Djokovic Defeats Federer for Barclays ATP World Tour Finals Trophy
Novak Djokovic captured his sixth title of the season on Monday, his second Barclays ATP World Tour Finals trophy, defeating second-seeded and six-time champion Roger Federer 7-6(6), 7-5 in London at The O2 Arena. Djokovic accepted the singles trophy and a check for $1,760,000 as an unbeaten champion in five matches this week, and also earned 1,500 South African Airways ATP Rankings points. Federer, now 6-2 lifetime in finals at the season-ending championships, received $800,000 and 800 points. Djokovic now trails Federer 13-16 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. It was only the fourth time in the 43-year history of the event that the world number one has met the world number for the title.
“It’s very satisfying for my team and myself to conclude this fantastic season with a [Barclays ATP] World Tour Finals win,” said Djokovic. “I never got to the finals of this tournament in London. The furthest I got is semifinals a couple years ago where I lost straight sets to Roger. I wasn’t really feeling this surface very well in past couple of years. But this year has been different. I got motivated, got a little bit more physically fresh. I wanted really to fight and I really wanted to get as far as I can in this tournament. Winning all the matches I played makes it even more special.”
Djokovic improved to 34-19 in tour-level finals after going 5-0 in match play this week. He opened his fifth straight season-ending campaign on Monday, with a 7-6(4), 6-3 victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. On Wednesday, he rallied past Andy Murray 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in their seventh meeting of year (leads 4-3) and on Friday beat Tomas Berdych 6-2, 7-6(6). In the semifinals, he came back to defeat Juan Martin del Potro 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
“Today we had times where we had longer rallies, we had times where we had shorter rallies,” said Federer. “Like I mentioned, I think we had some great stuff out there. It was good playing such points. I think the quality was good. I shouldn’t have been broken as often as I was broken today. But then again, that obviously has something to do with Novak, as well. It was extremely close today.”
