Novak Djokovic began the season in impressive fashion at the season-opening event in Doha, Qatar. He won his 60th ATP Tour title when he defeated Rafael Nadal in the Final; notable matches being the Final in which he dropped only 3 games and the opening round versus Dustin Brown, where he struck 82 winners.
After the Qatar ExxonMobil Open came the Aircel Chennai Open; Stanislas Wawrinka defended his title there. He tends to play very well at that event; and until recent seasons, he has coined the India and South Asia’s Premier ATP World Tour Tennis event his ‘good luck charm’ since he has gone on to wins Slams after winning there.
Over at Brisbane, Australia, it was time for Milos Raonic to have his moment to shine. The three events in Doha, Chennai and Brisbane run concurrently from the 4th January to the 10th.
Roberto Bautista-Agut and Viktor Troicki (who lived out ‘the comeback kid’ crown for all it’s worth) also picked up trophies in Auckland, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia respectively.
Novak Djokovic was back in Melbourne to do what he does best on the soil he loves best – he defended his Australian Open title and won his 11th Major; the Australian Open for the 6th time, equaling Roy Emerson’s record. he beat Andy Murray in straight sets on Finals day.
Martin Klizan and Pablo Quevas were surprise winners of 500-Tour level events in February; (the ABN Amro World Tennis event in Rotterdam, which was ‘safe to say’ known as Roger Federer‘s event for several seasons and the Rio Open in Brazil.
]Toward the end of February, Wawrinka picked up his second title of the season at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships when he beat Marcos Baghdatis and Dominic Thiem his first title at 500-level in Acapulco, Mexico after he beat Aussie Bernard Tomic 7-6(6) 4-6 6-3. Thiem, who has done his part in representing Austria, reached a career-high ranking of World no. 14.
Novak Djokovic again this time round…the Indian Wells-Miami double came along as usual from mid-March. The Serb claimed those Masters 1000 titles for the third successive time, the fourth in total.
The start of the clay season belonged to the King of Clay Rafael Nadal. He won the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters and the Barcelona Open.
From May, Djokovic won two Masters 1000 events, the title in Madrid and the Rogers Cup in Canada in July. His biggest title was of this season was without a shadow of doubt the French Open title. Andy Murray won in Rome, and twice in London at the Aegon Championships and at the All England Club. It was quite the year for the Scot because the Olympic Gold medal followed, then the titles during the Asian swing (which has been dominated by Djokovic).
Murray won the China Open in Beijing and the Shanghai Rolex Masters event. He continued with the 500-level title in Vienna, Austria before winning in Paris, the last Masters 1000 event of the season. He finished off his season sweetly by capturing his first Barclays World Tour Finals title at the O2 Arena, beating Djokovic, who looked to match Federer’s 6 titles there. Federer has a long-standing love affair with indoor surfaces, but Djokovic had come up a level on the same surfaces in that most people were pretty sure he will end the year with a win there; especially to reclaim the no. 1 spot.
It was all to play for in that Final that Murray won. The Scot concludes the season as the best player on the Tour!
