Novak Djokovic celebrated his return to the top of the world rankings with a 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the ATP Tour Finals at London’s O2 Arena on Monday.
Despite having just one grand slam title to his name this year, the Australian Open – Djokovic replaced Roger Federer as world No.1 on Monday after a brief spell playing second fiddle to the Swiss star.
Only David Ferrer has been able to equal Djokovic’s impressive total of 71 match wins during the course of 2012, meaning for the second year in a row the Serb will finish the season on top of the rankings.
One of Djokovic’s few failures came at the Paris Masters last week when he lost in the early stages to Sam Querrey – the first time the Serb had been beaten indoors this year – but he was back in the groove against French seventh seed Tsonga in his opening Group A tie at the season-ending event.
“It’s a pleasure to play here once again. I was really looking forward to it because we always enjoy the atmosphere,” Djokovic said.
“It’s the last tournament of the year so we both wanted to win. It means a lot. Especially here, there are no easy matches and no favourites.
“You just want to do your best and give the crowd something to cheer about.”
Tsonga, watched by new Australian coach Roger Rasheed, had a break point in the opening game, but a fortunate net cord got Djokovic out of trouble, and the Frenchman couldn’t convert his second chance to break when he missed a forehand at 4-3.
It went to a tie-break where Djokovic showed his priceless knack of playing his best on the big points, who took it on his second set point.
Djokovic was more like himself in the second set and went on the attack in the first game as he looked to press home his advantage.
US Open champion Andy Murray beat Tomas Berdych 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the day’s other Group A match.
Murray was playing in front of a British audience for the first time since his dramatic final win against Djokovic in New York in September and he rewarded the partisan crowd with a come from behind Group A success to kick off his latest bid to win the season-ending event.
The 25-year-old, who has never been past the semi-finals of the Tour Finals in four previous attempts, made a slow start against Czech fifth seed Berdych in the tournament’s opening match.
But, after failing to convert any of his first 10 break-point chances, Murray finally found his rhythm in the second set and was able to ease to the finish line in just over two hours.
