As the champion himself likes to say, he’s ‘the real deal’. Novak Djokovic proved that at London’s O2 last night, defeating crowd favourite Roger Federer 6-2, 6-4, to lift the Barclays World Tour Final trophy for a historic fourth consecutive time.
Federer had earlier won against Djokovic in the group stage match that brought the two titans of tennis face to face. This had upped hopes of fans who were cheering him on throughout the game, but it took the unflappable Djokovic just 80 minutes to crush his opponent.
Federer had a couple of opportunities during the match but failed to cash in on them. Compared to Novak, whose defenses were so strong as to make him seem invincible, Federer looked visibly uncertain at times. For coach Boris Becker, Djokovic’s win was a perfect birthday present yesterday.
Djokovic won an amazing 11 titles in the current year, including three Grand Slams, and a total of 10 majors. He is now tied with Rafael Nadal at 23-23 match wins, and 22-22 against Roger Federer. The way he’s been playing, the Serb is poised to move ahead of both his main competitors.
Right now however, Djokovic plans to forget about tournaments for a couple of weeks, taking time off after what has been a tough but tremendously satisfying year for him. He says the year-end is going to spent on a well-deserved holiday with his family, and no talk of tennis.