Djokovic: “I really want to win every single match I play, and I try to get my hands on the trophy”

The Nitto ATP Finals is the year-end finale of the men's professional tennis season, featuring only the world's best eight qualified singles players and doubles teams as they battle it out for the last title of the year, and the biggest indoor tennis tournament in the world. The ATP Finals begin on the 15th November and run for 1 week until the 22nd November 2020. Where are the Nitto ATP Finals? The tournament is held at the O2 Arena in Greenwich, London. It has been held in London since 2009, but in 2021 is moving to Turin, Italy. Commentators for ATP Finals 2020 Robbie Koenig. Robbie Koenig is a prominent name on the ATP Tour’s commentary and analysis circuit. Koenig was a top doubles player in his playing days and even made the US Open doubles semi-finals. The South African is in the commentary booth for most of the ATP Masters 1000 events. Nitto ATP Finals Pala Alpitour, Torino 14-21 NOV.

Novak Djokovic has the calm and composed bearing of a man entirely confident in his skin, entirely confident in his environment, and supremely confident in his tennis right now.

Rightly so. When he took his seat for the last of this year’s now-familiar Zoom media days, he had already clinched a record-equalling sixth year-end No1. He will pick up the trophy, at a deserted O2 arena, as play gets underway for the 12th and final ATP Finals to be played in London.

He also knows that, with victory in a week’s time, he will equal another record: that of Roger Federer’s six titles at this most prestigious of ATP tournaments.

Djokovic makes no secret of the fact that such milestones, such records are the motivation and the life-blood of his tennis career. He plays in a golden era of record-makers, an era during which he, Federer and Rafael Nadal have all surpassed what seemed insurmountable just a decade ago: the 14 Majors of Pete Sampras.

It is an era during which another of Sampras’s records has been overtaken by Federer—weeks at No1. The American reached 286 by his retirement in 2002, but already that tally has been overtaken by both Federer, 310, and Djokovic, 294 and counting. And Nadal has also broken the 200 mark.

So dominant has this golden trio become, indeed, that in fewer than two decades since Sampras was proclaimed ‘the greatest’, they have occupied the No1 ranking for close to 17 years between them, a dominance broken only by the 41-week stretch of Andy Murray, whose threat to the triumvirate has been undermined by back and hip surgeries.

Certainly 2020 threw a huge spanner into the works: The coronavirus pandemic closed down half the tennis season, sweeping away Wimbledon, six Masters, and the Olympics in its path. What it did not do was dampen Djokovic’s ambitions or form.

He had already reclaimed the No1 ranking from Nadal prior to lockdown with victory at the ATP Cup, a record eighth Australian Open, and then the Dubai title. He then continued his 26 run of match-wins into the reopened season in August, winning the ‘Cincinnati Masters’ in New York.

After a default at the US Open, he went on to win the Rome Masters—handing him another record over Nadal, 36 Masters titles—before reaching the final at Roland Garros.

Then with his quarter-final finish in Vienna, and stats up to 39-3, the end-of-year trophy was as good as his—plus a new record, the oldest year-end No1.

But make no mistake: At the age of 33—younger than Federer by six years—Djokovic has plenty more time and energy in the tank, and his ambitions are, if anything, only sharpened by the milestones of his great rival. As he made clear in a long interview in Serbia with Graham Bensinger in May:

“I believe I can win the most Slams and break the record for longest No1—those are definitely my clear goals.”

And London, where the Serb has already achieved so much—he has won four titles from six finals since the tournament moved to the O2—is a significant stepping stone to his No1 ambitions. With an unexpected round-robin exit last year, Djokovic can boost his points ahead of next season, which will help to keep him on track to equal Federer in March.

He put it thus after winning the Rome Masters, where he equalled the Sampras record:

“Of course I’m aware of the amount of weeks. I’m getting closer. I’m in a very good position, I feel like. I have also been playing really well and been healthy, which is great.”

It is a message he reaffirmed to media at the O2 this weekend:

“I think the O2 arena was very successful for this event the last 11 years, and I was fortunate to have plenty of success here…

“Obviously, coming here and knowing I have clinched the year-end No1 releases some of the pressure, but it doesn’t change what I hope to achieve and why I am here.

“I really want to win every single match I play, and I will try to get my hands on the trophy. I want this trophy as much as anybody in this tournament. I’m hoping I can end my season in the best possible way.”

Djokovic begins his campaign on Monday afternoon against the last to qualify this year, No8 Diego Schwartzman, and he had warm words about the Argentine he has beaten in all five previous meetings.

Nitto Atp Masters 2018

“I’ll play him first time in doors… He’s never played on this court but that probably is kind of releasing him from any pressure that he has to do well.

“He’s in great form, probably been the best season of his life, had some great results in the last couple of months.” Schwartzman made the quarters of the Australian Open, the semis of the French Open, and the final of the Rome Masters.

“I have lots of respect for him, great guy, fierce competitor, one of quickest players on the tour, very difficult to get the ball past him, so have to be patient, but at the same time try to dictate the play.”

In the same pool, No4 Daniil Medvedev will play No6 Alexander Zverev in their opener. Djokovic said of these two younger opponents:

“Zverev and Medvedev are probably in the best form of any player in this tournament indoors. Zverev won two in Cologne in a row and then played the Paris final, Medvedev won the Paris [Masters] tournament.

“Those guys are very tall, they have big serves and huge weapons from the back of the court. Complete players both of them, and kind of similar styles. You have to be at your best to win against those guys the way they are playing at the moment indoors.”

Djokovic does have a winning record against both, but each has upset the world No1 in previous contests: Medvedev got two wins, in Monte Carlo and Cincinnati, last year; Zverev split two matches at the O2 in 2018, and beat him in Rome in 2017.

Yet such is the aura and the form of Djokovic that few see him falling short of another record win in a week’s time.

Group Tokyo 1970

Nitto Masters Atp Masters

[1] Novak Djokovic

[4] Daniil Medvedev [H2H vs Djokovic, 2-4]

[5] Alexander Zverev [H2H vs Djokovic, 2-3]

[8] Diego Schwartzman [H2H vs Djokovic, 0-5]

This year the Nitto ATP Finals will be held without fans in London at the O2 Arena. This will be the last year that this event will take place in London, as it will move to Turin, Italy starting next year. The eight men who will be playing in the singles matches are the best eight ranked players in the world. Here are the players who are fighting to dethrone Stefanos Tsitsipas from his title, which he won last year against Dominic Thiem.

Novak Djokovic

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic will look to tie Roger Federer with six ATP Finals titles this year. However, the Serbian has not won this event since 2015, but will look to change that as he has had an incredible year. As of late, he has suffered some setbacks as he lost the final of the French Open to Rafael Nadal. Then he lost to Lorenzo Sonego at the Vienna Open in straight sets. This loss was more than a surprise as he was outplayed by the young Italian.

Undoubtedly Djokovic will be the heavy favorite and he will try to cement his name amongst the greatest of all time. The road to the championship will not be easy as the best players will try to attempt to squash his dreams of glory.

RafaelNadal

The Spaniard comes from winning his 1,000th match at the Paris Masters, although he lost to Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals. Before that, he won the French Open, but this event is an indoor hard court. He did not look like himself in the Paris Masters, but will try to end the year on a high note.

Nitto Masters Atp Championship

Nadal has never won this event, but will try to add this lucrative title to his already incredible trophy set.

Daniil Medvedev

The young Russian is coming from an incredible run at the Paris Masters as he defeated Alexander Zverev in the final. He had a great run at this year’s US Open, but after that struggled to win some matches. Indeed, the Russian comes with all the momentum and should be considered a real threat to win the title. He has a strong serve and a great style of play.

Nitto Atp Masters London

Dominic Thiem

The Austrian recorded the biggest title of his career this year, winning the US Open in a dramatic thriller against Alexander Zverev. Thiem has played a lot of tennis since the return of tennis due the global pandemic. Last year he reached the final of the ATP Finals and ended up losing the eventual champion Tsitsipas.

This year, Thiem will seek revenge and claim his second biggest title of his career. No doubt he has developed into a great hard court player and is a real threat to any opponent in his way.

Alexander Zverev

The young German is playing some great tennis this year, but still remains without a Grand Slam title. He came close this year reaching the US Open final and blowing a two set to love lead. Nevertheless, he won both Cologne titles and reached the final of the Paris Masters.

He has won this tournament before, back in 2018, and will look to repeat that this year. No doubt Zverev is set to compete and defeat anyone in his way.

Stefanos Tsitsipas

The young Greek is the defending champion as he beat Dominic Thiem last year in three sets. Stefanos has not had the best year of his young career, although, he can end the season on a high note if he can repeat what he did at last years event.

Nitto Masters Atp Synthase

Andrey Rublev

The young Russian has had the most consistent year of all of the contenders at the Nitto ATP Finals. This year he has won five titles, with a 40-8 win-loss record. He is in hot form and can defeat anybody in his path when he’s in his game. He looks ready to perform at the big stage with the elite, now he must prove that he belongs with the upper echelon.

Diego Schwartzman

The Argentine cracked into the top ten for the first time in his career. He is playing the best tennis of his life and will try to prove it against the best. He might be the shortest player of the bunch, but he backs up his game with high quality tennis. He’s proven that he can hang with the best as he defeated Nadal this year in Rome.

Nitto Atp Masters 2020

In addition to this, he beat Dominic Thiem at the French Open and reached the semifinals. Schwartzman has nothing to lose and everything to gain in this tournament

Nitto Atp Masters

The Groups Have Been Drawn

In Group Tokyo 1970, Novak Djokovic leads the pack. He is accompanied by this year’s Paris Masters champion Daniil Medvedev, 2018 Nitto ATP Finals champion Alexander Zverev, and the crafty Argentine Diego Schwartzman.

Group London 2020 is lead by Rafael Nadal. Following the Spaniard are this year’s US Open Champion Dominic Thiem, defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, and in form Andrey Rublev.

Matteo Berrettini and Denis Shapovalov are the first and second alternates in the singles category.

In short, the matches will all be great as the best eight players of the world will battle it out to see who is the best. The Nitto ATP Finals starts Sunday, November 15 and the first two matches that day will be Thiem versus Tsitsipas and Nadal versus Rublev.

Main photo from Getty.