23. 11. 2009. ·
Defending champion Novak Djokovic (3) starts his Masters Cup title defence on Monday, around 21.45 CET. The prestigious tournament is now called Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and is played for the first time at The O2 arena in London.
Novak’s first opponent is Russian Nikolay Davydenko (6). Rafael Nadal (ESP,2) and Robin Soderling (SWE,8) are also in Group B. Their match is scheduled at 15.15 CET.
Djokovic and six years older Davydenko have met four times. Their H2H is 2-2.
Novak won both matches last year at the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, once in the round robin group and again in the finals. World no.7 defeated Djokovic in Davis Cup match in 2008 and in the semifinals of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Shanghai last month.
Reigning champion comes to London self-confident after winning back-to-back titles in Basel and Paris.
“I feel very good on the court; I managed to find the right form in the past two months. Since the Cincinnati finals things were going the right way”, said Novak. “I’ve been able to play the game that I played in most of 2008 when I won the Grand Slam. In 2009, I’ve played the most matches on the tour so it’s been exhausting, a very long year, but a year where I’ve had a lot of success; even though I didn’t win a major tournament until Bercy, I was very consistent with the results. I can be very happy with the season overall, but of course we all want to have a good result here in London, which, for this period of the year, is the most important tournament”.
The 22-year-old Serb has won 76 matches this season – the most on the ATP World Tour.
The competition in Group A started yesterday. Andy Murray beat Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, and in the night session Roger Federer came back from a set down to defeat Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.
