By Ashley Williams
LONDON, England (TheSportsNEXT) November 7, 2012: World number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia lived up to the expectations on Wednesday when he outlasted world number three Andy Murray of Great Britain by 4-6 6-3 7-5 in the Group A match of the ATP World Tour Finals at a packed O2 Arena.
The season-ending ATP World Tour Finals has the world’s top eight players in the ATP Rankings but this year Rafael Nadal of Spain, the world number four, is not part of the tournament owing to an injury which paved the way for Janko Tipsarevic at the London event.
Novak Djokovic found it difficult to cope with the aggression of Andy Murray in the initial part of the match as the British world number three as the local lad took the first set by 6-4.
However, Novak Djokovic stormed back into the contention in second set and claimed it by 6-3.
The third set went to the wire where both players tried their best to overcome each other but it was Novak Djokovic who repeated US Open final victory in London as he clinched the penultimate set by 7-5 after pendulum kept swinging both ways in the final moments of the match.
After this victory, Novak Djokovic, the 2008 champion, is now 2-0 in Group A play at the ATP World Tour Finals and is on course to end the 2012 with yet another title as number one player in the world.
It was one of the most-anticipated matches of the ATP World Tour Finals where finalists of Sony Open Tennis, US Open, and Shanghai Rolex Masters revived the rivalry which is touching new highs as both players looked under pressure for the best part of the match.
Novak Djokovic committed 40 unforced errors but Andy Murray had 44 unforced errors btu the Serb pounced on the point scoring chances as he won 22 of his 30 points at the net in an aggressive fashion as the high quality encounter was relished by an attendance of 17,651 at the O2 Arena.
Novak Djokovic told ATP after his victory, “It was another great match, another great performance from both of us. I hope that people who watched it agree with my opinion? I didn't expect anything less other than a tough match that went down the wire and was decided on the last point. The good thing about this format, it gives you a day to recover. I'm going to need that day tomorrow. I will just try to take it easy, work on some things a little bit on the practice. Then, of course, get on the court and try to win. It was really important obviously for me to win this match today, as it was for Andy. I will try to focus and win every match that I play on”.
The world number one Novak Djokovic will be up against Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic in his final match of the round-robin league on Friday which will decide the other qualifier from Group A.
Andy Murray told reporters, “The last two minutes of the match probably is what decided it. He broke from 15/40, and then I had 15/40 next game and didn't break … I had a chance in the third set. You would hope that one game wouldn't decide the outcome of a whole match."
Djokovic said, “It was important for me after dropping a first set to stay mentally tough and believe that I could get my opportunities, and when they were presented to try to step in and use them. I don't think I played bad in the first set. It was him playing really well, serving extremely well. He lost only [a] couple of points on his first serve throughout the whole set and then he made some unforced errors. He allowed me to get back to the match. Then I think it was quite even up to the last point."
On Tuesday, Djokovic received two 2012 ATP World Tour Awards presented by Moët & Chandon. ATP Executive Chairman and President Brad Drewett presented ATP World Tour No. 1 and Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year awards in a special on-court ceremony.
Andy Murray has now won one out of his two matches of the ATP World Tour Finals 2012 thus far and his chances for last-four qualification will depend largely on his performance against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday. Tomas Berdych also stands a good chance of qualification but he will have to defeat Novak Djokovic to get there.
