Joker aims to upset the pack

Dubai : The battle lines may be drawn for yet another tussle between the world's best players Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at next week's Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

But please do not discount the ‘joker' in the eight-player pack — Novak Djokovic.

Everything that has happened so far this season points towards the fact that he needs to be taken as a serious contender for this prestigious title.

By his own admission, the lanky Serbian has sent out a warning to the rest of the best this season.

"I am happy to be coming to London with a lot of confidence, and the only question is if I am able to physically rest and get energy for that event," Djokovic told media after his three-set 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (3) win against local favourite Gael Monfils in last week's BNP Paribas Masters in Paris.

Confidence aside, consider his record for 2009.

Triumph

Last week's triumph was his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title of the season.

His win in Paris has put some distance between himself and fourth-placed Andy Murray in the ATP Rankings by adding a further 400 points to the 600 he earned the previous week by dethroning three-time champion Federer at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel.

This is the third straight year that Djokovic has finished third best in the rankings. This season he has finished with 7,910 points leaving fourth-placed Andy Murray trailing by 1,280.

Going into the Paris final, Djokovic was once again confronted with the choke tag — he had failed to win any of the four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 finals he had played in earlier this season.

The Belgrade native had ended runner-up at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami (lost to Murray), the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters (lost to Nadal), the Internazional BNL d'Italia in Rome (lost to Nadal) and the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati (lost to Federer).

And last Sunday he was given another scare as Monfils fought back from a set down to level and then took Djokovic the full distance after trailing 1-4 in the third set.

Titles

Last week's Paris crown saw the 22-year-old Serb become the third player to win at least five tour-level titles this season, joining the likes of Murray (six) and Nadal (five). And for Djokovic, this was his tenth final of the season — an ATP World Tour best.

His wins in 2009 started off with the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships against David Ferrer.

He also won titles at the Serbian Open in his hometown, the China Open in Beijing and the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel.

However, it is the form from Paris that has put him in the mix after accounting for both Federer and Nadal.

"Winning back-to-back titles at this level is a huge achievement for me, so I'm very pleased with my performances in the past four to five weeks. So winning gives me even more motivation to make the same success in the future," Djokovic said.

It's the end of the season and it's one final tournament before going into a long break.

Djokovic will be one of the main contenders for the title, and should he falter then there are others including Nadal, Murray and Andy Roddick who could challenge.

After all, these are the best eight players in the world.

The event promises to serve up some superb entertaining tennis.

November 22 (Sunday)

12.30 pm

Doubles: D. Nestor/N. Zimonjic vs M. Fystenberg/M. Matkowski

n/b 2.15 pm

Singles: A. Murray vs J. M. Del Potro. 7.00 pm

Doubles: M. Bhupathi/M.Knowles vs F. Cermak/M. Mertinak

n/b 8.45 pm

Singles: R. Federer vs F. Verdasco.

November 23 (Monday)

12.30 pm

Doubles: B. Bryan/M. Bryan vs M. Mirnyi/A. Ram

n/b 2.15 pm

Singles: R. Nadal vs R. Soderling.

7.00 pm

Doubles: L. Dlouhy/L. Paes vs L. Kubot/O. Marach;

n/b 8.45 pm

Singles: N. Djokovic vs N. Davydenko.