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SPORTSMonday 23 November 2015
Djokovic beats Federer in straight sets to win at ATP finals
CHRIS LEHOURITES the season-ending ATP fi- best season of his career Djokovic said. “For some Serb with a back injury.
AP Sports Writer nals on Sunday by beating with another superb dis- reason or another, I’ve
LONDON (AP) — As usual six-time champion Roger play, including winning 16 been playing some of my “Maybe at times I went for
this season, Novak Djokov- Federer 6-3, 6-4. of the 19 points on his sec- best tennis after the U.S.
ic was the best player on Djokovic, who won three ond serve and saving both Open, in Asia and also in- too much.”
the court. Grand Slam titles this year break points he faced. doors, both Paris and Lon-
The top-ranked Serb won and reached the final in “I couldn’t ask for a bet- don.” Federer finishes his sea-
his fourth straight title at the other, capped the ter finish of the season,” Federer beat Djokovic on
son with a 6-5 record in fi-
Novak Djokovic of Serbia
holds up the winners trophy nals, with all five losses to
after he defeated Roger
Federer of Switzerland in their Djokovic. Two of those of
singles final tennis match
at the ATP World Tour Finals, those came at Wimbledon
in the O2 arena in London,
Sunday Nov. 22, 2015. and the U.S. Open, giving
Associated Press Djokovic his ninth and 10th
Tuesday in the group stage,
but the 17-time Grand major titles.
Slam champion made too
many mistakes in the final For Djokovic, it was a sea-
on Sunday. Federer ended
up with 31 unforced errors, son to remember.
including 15 from his usu-
ally reliable forehand. Besides becoming the first
He even gave away the
final point with his second man to win four straight
double-fault of the match.
“It would have been nice titles at the tournament for
to serve a little bit bet-
ter early on in the match, the top eight players in the
play better overall on his
second serve, because he world, Djokovic also will fin-
does allow you to play on
his second serve,” said Fe- ish the season at the No. 1
derer, who lost to Djokovic
in the 2012 final and pulled player for the fourth time in
out of last year’s champi-
onship match against the five years. He won the Aus-
tralian Open, Wimbledon
and the U.S. Open, and
reached the final at the
French Open.
The latest victory, his 82nd
of the year, evens the
head-to-head record
against Federer at 22-22.
On Saturday in the semifi-
nals, he evened his head-
to-head record against
Rafael Nadal at 23-23.
“Those two rivalries made
me a better player, the
player I am today, no
doubt,” Djokovic said.
“Made me understand
what I need to do both on
and off the court to be able
to be in this position now.”
On the court, both Djokov-
ic and Federer had break
chances in the opening
two games, but both man-
aged to save them. The first
breakthrough for Djokovic
came in the third game.
With Federer serving at
30-30, the Swiss player
thought he had his first ace
of the match. But Djokovic
challenged the call, and
won.q
