Djokovic wins ATP World Tour Finals and finishes season as World No. 1
HEAD racquet rebel Novak Djokovic ended the 2012 season with a 7-6(6), 7-5 win over Roger Federer at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London. The Serb, who plays with a YouTek™ IG Speed MP, went down an early break, but took victory in two and a quarter hours. Djokovic achieved year-end world No. 1 status in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings for the second year in a row.
The victory marked the second time that Djokovic had won the ATP World Tour Finals after lifting the trophy in Shanghai in 2008. "This is my first time to be in this position here in London," said the 25-year old who started 2012 with the Australian Open title. "Roger and I pushed each other the maximum today. This is a fantastic event at the end of the season; there has been some great tennis this week. I can't think of a better way to start and end a season.
"This success is tremendous; it's very satisfying for my team and myself to conclude this fantastic season with a World Tour Finals win. I never got to the finals here in London”, Djokovic continued, "but this year has been different. I got motivated, got a little bit more physically fresh. You know, I really wanted to fight and I really wanted to get as far as I can in this tournament. And now, winning all the matches I played makes it even more special."
Djokovic, who also won the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year for his contributions through the Novak Djokovic Foundation, his role as a UNICEF ambassador and other charitable venture, came back from 0-3 in the first set. As well as winning the Australian Open for a second consecutive edition, Djokovic reached the final at six ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments, winning titles in Miami, Toronto and Shanghai. He came to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals already with a 70-11 match record, the third time in four years he’s reached at least 70 victories, and moved to 75-11 at London.
Federer had prevented a HEAD-to-HEAD final as he beat racquet rebel Andy Murray with his YouTek™ IG Radical Pro in the semi-finals. But Murray ended his season with confidence high after breakthroughs which included the London Olympic gold medal and his first Grand Slam title at the US Open. "It was an incredibly positive year even if I would have loved to finish on a win. If you told me last year I'd be sitting in this position with the results I had this season, I would have agreed and signed up for that straight away. I'm happy with the year and I'll work really hard in December to be prepared for the 2013 season."