Dubai: Each year is special for Novak Djokovic. At least since 2010, the 28-year-old Serbian star has realised his full potential as a professional tennis player following his meeting with Dr Igor Cetojevic, a holistic practitioner. The doctor explained to Djokovic the reason why he had been falling apart on so many instances in the past. He advised Djokovic to alter his diet and keep away from certain foods.
What came later is Djokovic’s much-spoken about ‘gluten-free diet’. And what followed was a string of records that have placed Djokovic among the tennis greats.
In 2015, Djokovic reached all four Grand Slams finals, eight ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament finals, winning titles in Indian Wells, Miami, Monte-Carlo, Rome, Shanghai and Paris. He also lifted the Beijing trophy among 14 finals bringing with him a 78-5 match record at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals — making this the sixth time in eight years that he’s reached at least 70 wins.
While there is Federer who went on to win the year-ending title on five occasions without being defeated, Djokovic is close on his heels winning the crown the last three seasons without losing even once. Given his ominous form at the moment, it would seem tough to find a true opponent who could challenge Djokovic in going for a fourth straight crown at the O2 Arena next Sunday.
Federer will certainly be eyeing his chances during the week. The Swiss ace started his season at the Brisbane International where he defeated Milos Raonic in the final, thereby becoming only the third man in the Open Era to have 1,000 or more wins. In doing so, Federer joined Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl to have more than 1,000 wins and the first man in the Open Era to win at least one title in each of 15 consecutive years.
By his own admission, 2015 has been a great season although Federer has ended up with runner-up positions at Wimbledon and the US Open. He next won the Dubai crown for the seventh time, and after Wimbledon and Halle, this was the third time that he had won seven or more titles at a tournament.
The Federer juggernaut went rolling on. He won his third title at the inaugural Istanbul Open, followed this with a record eighth Gerry Weber Open and then a fifth in grand style at the Cinicinnati Masters — defeating both Djokovic and Andy Murray en route. Federer then pocketed his sixth of the season at the Swiss Indoors in Basel, notching a comforting win over arch rival Rafael Nadal to take his career singles tally to 88 titles.
Murray can also be seen as a worthy challenger, especially due to the support the Scot will generate playing before an adoring home support. But the 28-year-old will have half his attention on Great Britain’s Davis Cup encounter against Belgium at the end of November. In fact, Murray had sounded out the organisers that he may pull out of the O2 event and commence advance preparations for Davis Cup. But this did not go well, basically due to the precedence it could set for other players in the future.
Then there is Stan Wawrinka, Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych, all three of whom can be devastating when on song. Wawrinka is coming off his best season ever this year. Not only did he win his first French Open crown, he added another three titles starting with the Chennai Open for the third time.
Nadal, on the other hand, has never been the player he was since those troubling knees. In 2015, the Spaniard did win three titles starting off in Argentina. But his dipping form and fall in rankings have plagued the former world number one. So narrowing in at the end of yet another gruelling season for both Wawrinka and Nadal may not exactly be possible.
Berdych is consistent, but on his own terms. While he tends to be flashy and brilliant at times, it is the level of consistency on the bigger stages that has always eluded him.
The eight-player singles field for the O2 will be complete with the addition of David Ferrer and Kei Nishikori. The Japanese had made history last year as the first Asian player to qualify for the season finale in singles. On his debut, he had beaten Murray and Ferrer to reach the semi-finals, where he fell to Djokovic.
Ferrer will be making his seventh appearance. The 33-year-old Spaniard reached the final on his debut in 2007 in Shanghai where he lost to Federer and qualified four years in a row from 2010 to 2013 before serving as an alternate last year, in place of Milos Raonic.
Ferrer has put together one of his best seasons in 2015, capturing five ATP World Tour titles — his biggest haul since seven trophies in 2012.
But will all this be enough to challenge the might of Djokovic, who simply looks too sleek to be stopped from winning yet another year-end crown next Sunday.
