Crown him: Djokovic puts exclamation point on 2015 with London title

Novak Djokovic was No. 1 with a bullet from start to finish in 2015. So it was a fitting end when he became the last man standing in London.

Djokovic won the World Tour Finals for a fourth year in a row on Sunday evening, beating Roger Federer 6-3, 6-4 for the title. The Serb had to work much harder after getting a walkover from Federer in the 2014 final, but he still cruised in just one hour and 20 minutes.

Djokovic warms up for the match:

Federer enters:

In their previous matchup this week, a 7-5, 6-2 win for Federer during round-robin action, the 34-year-old had broken Djokovic four times in 10 return games. For a fleeting moment it looked like Federer would make similar headway against Djokovic’s serve in this one. The Swiss, who saved a break point in the opening game, got a look at a break point for a 2-0 advantage but could not convert.

Federer promptly dropped serve at 1-1 but earned another break chance in his second return game. Another error cast the opportunity aside, much to the chagrin of a pro-Federer O2 crowd. Djokovic added one more break of his own for good measure to wrap up the set in convincing 6-3 style.

With momentum in hand, the top seed buckled down in his service games the rest of the way. He surrendered a mere six service points in the entire second set.

Drama in the showdown reached a high point when Federer found himself serving at 3-4, 0-40. The world No. 3 erased all three break points and held by reeling off five consecutive points with a flurry of big serves and groundstrokes.

But a routine hold–again–for Djokovic quickly put the pressure right back on Federer and this time the 17-time major champion could not withstand it. Federer fought off one match point with a gutsy second serve at 15-40 only to double-fault at 30-40 and hand Djokovic the title.

Amazingly enough, in the span of two days Djokovic leveled his lifetime head-to-head series against both Federer and Rafael Nadal. Prior to tying his score with Federer at 22-22, the reigning Australian Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open champion drew even with Nadal at 23-23.

“It’s been an incredible season,” who unbelievably reached the final in every tournament he played except the opening one in Doha. “Obviously sitting here with this trophy alongside me, I couldn’t ask for a better finish of the season. The last four years I managed to win the World Tour Finals, where the best players in the world are playing.”

Djokovic hands out chocolate to the press:
[tweet https://twitter.com/TennGrand/status/668537942198108160]

“It would have been nice to serve a little bit better early on in the match, play better overall on his second serve, because he does allow you to play on his second serve,” Federer explained. Maybe at times I went for too much. The moments where I should have gone safe, I didn’t, and vice versa. Those are the two regrets I have.

“But I thought he played well. High-quality match, I thought.”

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