Djokovic wobbles but victory only a matter of Thiem

Andy Murray’s climb to the top of the world rankings took a while longer than it takes thrill-seeking tourists to reach the summit of the O2 Arena roof walk.

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic returns the ball to Austria’s Dominic Thiem during their singles group match of the ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, 13 November 2016.

The Brit overtook the Serbian tennis star on the rankings on Monday, but will have to maintain his run at the ATP world tour finals, if he wants to finish 2016 as number one.

Austrian Thiem showed his promise after breaking into the top 10 this season as he gave Djokovic a scare in a 72-minute first set, which the 24-year-old won on his seventh set point, a pile-driving victor past Djokovic.

The Ivan Lendl Group at the Finals includes Djokovic, Milos Raonic, Gael Monfils and Dominic Thiem.

“I didn’t manage to win that first set, of course you’re frustrated”.

Sunday afternoon’s match sees the four-time defending champion Novak Djokovic take on first time qualifier Dominic Thiem in an intriguing starter at 2pm United Kingdom time. Murray defeated world no. 10 Tomas Berdych, who needed a semifinal appearance to pass Thiem, during their quarterfinal match.

Thiem got the upper hand in the first-set tie break with a beautifully executed forehand down the line.

The Portuguese is a big tennis fan, claiming past year that he cried when Andy Murray won his first Wimbledon title. Djokovic managed to level the score at 7-7 and 10-10.

“He deserved to win the tiebreaker, he was the better player in tough moments”.

The quality dipped somewhat midway through the opening set, with both men making careless errors.

From there, Djokovic only dropped two games en route to closing out a three set victory.

There have also been reports that he split up with his girlfriend in recent weeks and this one seems to be a match between two players whose second half of the season has been the complete opposite to their first. I played a lot of matches. “After that, I lost a little bit of energy-which is required against a guy like Novak to play close and good sets….”

However, that was as good as it got for the 23-year-old, with Djokovic racing through the second set in just 23 minutes and winning 12 of the last 14 games.

“Usually I don’t feel much chance to win against Andy, but I felt good in the game and had a great chance to beat him”.

The Czechs won a fifth title in six years, their 10th overall, and became the first team to win three consecutive Fed Cups since Spain from 1993-95.