Jamie Murray: ‘Andy deserves all the accolades he gets’

Djokovic was warned for smashing a ball in anger in the direction of his support team sitting courtside, but firing himself up worked and he raced through the second set without dropping a game.

Djokovic ended up prevailing 6-7 (10), 6-0, 6-2 in Group B’s first round-robin contest after two hours and two minutes.

Although his challenge fizzled out thereafter, some of his play – especially a sweet single-handed backhand – had a sell-out O2 Arena crowd roaring its approval.

The Manchester United manager was pictured at the O2 where he was watching Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem kick off the ATP World Tour Finals.

World number two Novak Djokovic took the first step towards claiming a record fifth ATP World Tour Finals in London with a 6-7 (10-12), 6-0, 6-2 win over young Dominic Thiem yesterday. However, one thing’s for sure is that regardless of the result, their third meeting this year’s promises a lot of excitement. Yeah, (it was) a thrilling tiebreaker….

Djokovic has been more than a little thin-skinned in his interactions with the media of late after revelations that he has been working with a “spiritual guru” in recent months.

“I found out who I’ll be playing earlier than usual, so since yesterday I’ve been thinking of strategies while practicing”. “I had to dig deep and take some time to reflect because it was an incredible achievement”, he said. Thiem then earned his seventh set point at 10-all when Djokovic sprayed a forehand wide.

But Becker is back with Djokovic in London and the pair are attempting to plot a triumphant end to a rollercoaster season. “I think with my own game that has helped to be more consistent week in and week out”.

I like the over 21.5 games in this one at around [1.9] and hopefully Cilic will spring the first surprise of the tournament too. “At the end of the year, when the players have played a lot of tennis, to play on the slowest court with really, really long rallies is tough, so it will shorten the points a bit and maybe make for some better tennis”.

“When I had a great comeback saving six, seven set points, then I didn’t manage to win that first set, of course you’re frustrated”, said Djokovic.

Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic beat flamboyant Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-4 in the other match in Djokovic’s group yesterday.

“All in all it was a very good year that I’m proud of”.

“Fortunately for me at this stage I don’t have the problem of really finding motivation or sources of inspiration, I have plenty of them”, he siad.