Novak Djokovic Beats Dominic Thiem At ATP World Tour Finals

“I ve been winning Grand Slams but I m still really far from number one so that s why I don t think about that”, Wawrinka told reporters in London.

The swing was complete in Paris last week when defeat for Djokovic in the quarter-finals against Marin Cilic coupled with Murray reaching the final elevated the latter to top spot.

Kei Nishikori is no longer just making up the numbers at the tennis world tour’s season-ending tournament, with a big result this year in London a realistic goal, he says.

After holding on during his first serving game, Thiem was broken in the second and there was always going to be one outcome from there on in. Today I think I was very solid from the first game and I was very confident.

Djokovic has been a shadow of the player that has dominated the sport for much of the last five years and has admitted to feelings of burnout as well as an unspecified personal problem. I imagine shortly he’ll be back to playing his best.

“Now I feel I need to be at this tournament, and then how I play against the top eight players is a separate challenge”.

Novak Djokovic was in combative form on and off the court as he began his ATP World Tour Finals campaign with victory over Dominic Thiem.

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. “He’s played extremely well here the last few years and I’d imagine he will have a really good tournament”. This marks the first time he has ever surrendered a set to the 23-year-old.

The Serb, who is trying to regain the world number one ranking from Britain’s Andy Murray, won 6-7 (10-12) 6-0 6-2.

The outburst seemed to have the desired effect on court, because he broke Thiem in the opening game of the second set and went on to whitewash the Austrian to level up the match.

“This year is the best I’ve had on court, the last few months have been the best in terms of my consistency”, he said.

In his second match on Tuesday, Djokovic will play fourth seed Milos Raonic, who made it a bad day for the first-timers by beating Gael Monfils 6-3 6-4.

“There were a couple of years when I wish I could have played and done a little bit better but, like last year, it was hard to judge because I prepared for the tournament by practising on clay”.

He has failed to win a title since claiming the Rogers Cup in July and suffered a first career loss to Cilic in Paris last week, opening the door for Murray to climb to the top.