Novak Djokovic (photo ©Spekoek) reached the final going through the round robin defeating Marin Cilic, Stan Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych then defeating Kei Nishikori in the semifinals. He lost only one set in the semifinals. He’s the defending champion having won the last two editions of the ATP Finals.
Roger Federer reached the final going through the round robin defeating Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikor and Andy Murray then defeating Stan Wawrinka in the semifinals. He lost only one set in the semifinals. He won this tournament six times.
Unfortunately, the final match wasn’t played. Roger Federer paid a big price for the big effort he was forced to by his countryman Stan Wawrinka last night: he managed to win the semifinal but today had back pain. The result is that he withdrew before the final started.
Roger Federer took the field at the O2 Arena in London only to explain the situation to the crowd who wanted to see him play. Even in the negative, he proved he’s a gentleman coming in person to apologize for his withdrawal. He explained that between last night and today he tried treatments, rest, warm-up and even painkillers but eventually had to give up.
There was clear disappointment in Roger Federer’s voice for this epilogue but he made it clear that he can’t compete at this level with Novak [Djokovic]. At his age it would have been too risky to try to play the match but has said he wants to come back again next year. He’ll keep on playing and if he’s in shape he’ll certainly play the ATP Finals once more.
It’s certainly a shame that the title went to Novak Djokovic without playing the final but it seems a fitting conclusion to a tournament in which several players arrived in a state of shape faro from extraordinary. Roger Federer looked like one of the very few exceptions but his back suffered the only serious match he had to play.
This year Novak Djokovic deserves the title of master of tennis, his third in a row, because he’s the player who reached the end of the year in the best shape. During this tournament he had just a distraction that cost him the second set of the semifinal, for the rest he dominated his opponents. In a year without a real dominator, he still managed to finish the year again at no. 1 in the ATP rankings.
[ad name=”eBayUSAUKTennis468″]
