The ATP World Tour final, the final tournament of every calendar year, is played at one the most glamorous arenas within tennis, The O2 Arena in London. The 44th edition of the ATP World Final Tour wil ltake place from November 7th – 16th at the O2 Arena and will be the location for Novak Djokovic to defend his title.
Format
The 8 players have to qualify for the ATP World Tour Final throughout the year. Those players are then divided into 2 groups of four. Each player plays the other 3 in the group stage. The two players with the best record progress to the semi-final. The winners can be awarded with up to 1500 rankings points as well as up to $5 million in total prize money, the chance to win one of the most prestigious titles in tennis and to finish as the season’s No. 1 player. Record holder is Roger Federer with 6 titles followed by Pete Sampras with 5.
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from £ATP World Tour Finals 2013
Novak Djokovic secured his second ATP World Tour Finals trophy after defeating Roger Federer 7-6(6), 7-5 at the O2 Arena in London last night. Djokovic is only the 9th player to win the ATP World Tour Final at least twice. He won his first ATP World Tour Final title in 2008, when he beat Davydenko.
Djokovic ends another successful season winning a total of 6 titles. Ashok Vaswani, Chief Executive of Barclays Retail and Business Banking, presented Djokovic after the 2 hour and 15 minute final and a cheque for $1,760,000. Djokovic also received 1,500 South African Airways ATP Rankings points and will end this year as World’s number 1. He played a truly outstanding season with a 75-12 record, improving to 50-5 on hard courts. Djokovic won the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, but fell short in the finals of the French Open and the US Open. So, this victory is a great 2012 finish.
Djokovic said: “It’s been a very long year, a very long two years, but a very successful two years…I didn’t really know how I will follow up after incredible 2011, but I believed that I have to use the time where I’m playing the best tennis of my life and I’m winning Grand Slams and finally realise what I need to do to win the major tournaments.”
Federer on the other side, made his 11th appearance at the ATP World Tour Finals and he received a cheque over $800,000 and 800 points. He failed to become the first player since Ivan Lendl to win 3 season ending titles. Federer also wanted to capture his 77th career title. However, Federer finished 2012 with an outstanding record of 71-12. His major title in 2012 was Wimbledon.
The ATP World Tour Finals were a great tennis event once again in London. More than record 263,229 spectators watched tennis at the O2 this past week and it was only the fourth time in the 43-year history of the event that the World No. 1 has met the World No. 2 for the title.
ATP World Tour Finals 2012
Novak Djokovic was successful in the 2012 tournament, defeating Rodger Federer in the final 7-6 7-5. The current Number 1 within the Tennis World Rankings is once again considered the favourite to retain the championship within several of the top bookmakers. Following Djokovic rewriting history by becoming the first male in the Open era to win three successive Australian Open titles it is difficult to argue against him retaining his crown in London.
2012 – Players
Andy Murray: Andy is going into this competition after an eventful summer to say the least. The whole nation watched him lose the Wimbledon final to Roger Federer back in July, a few weeks later he then defeated Federer to win the Olympic Gold medal in the singles, he also reached the Olympics doubles final and he is going into the World Tour finals on the back of winning the US Open. That is his first Grand Slam title and at only 25 years old, there is plenty more to come from him. Andy Murray has qualified for this competition for the fifth straight year although his best finish is reaching the semi-finals on 2 occasions in 2008 and 2010.
Novak Djokovic: Djokovic is the 2008 champion beating fellow finalist Andy Murray when it was held in Shanghai and this is his 6th successive year of qualifying. He is the current World number 2 despite recently losing in the US Open final in September. So far this season he has won 3 of 12 tournaments he has competed in, reaching the final of another 4 of them.
Roger Federer: Federer is the oldest out of these four finalists and yet he is still Number 1 in the world. He is coming to the end of his career and so he will be trying to carry on being as successful as possible before he retires. He has won 5 tournaments so far this year including a dramatic win over Murray in Wimbledon this year. Roger is the six-time champion of this tournament and he has qualified for his 11th time. The Swiss veteran will be entering this event as the two-time defending champion.
David Ferrer: The 30 year old Spaniard turned pro in 2000 and is currently 5th in the ATP Rankings. Ferrer had a successful 2012 reaching the quarter-finals at the Australian Open and the semi-final at the French and the US Open. Each time he lost against world number 1 -Novak Djokovic. This year’s ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena will be great and Ferrer will be motivated to beat Djokovic for once in 2012. His 2012 records (62 wins and 14 losses), however, proof that he had one of the most successful years in his career as a professional.
Tomas Berdych: The Czech is 6th in the ATP Rankings with a record of 57 wins and 19 losses in 2012. The biggest success for Berdych came in 2010 when he reached the Wimbledon final and lost to Nadal. On his way to the final, however, he beat Federer and Djokovic. He also reached the semis of the 2010 French Open and the 2012 US Open where he lost to Andy Murray.
Del Potro: The Argentine Juan Martin del Potro qualified as the seventh tennis player for the ATP Tour Finals in London from November 5th to 12th. Del Potro is currently 8th in the ATP Rankings booked his ticket in Basel, where the South American won against Brian Baker in the quarter-final with 7-5, 6-1. Del Potro qualified for the ATP World Tour Final for the third time.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: The Frenchman is currently ranked 8th in the ATP ranks. Tsonga will be happy to return to London as he reached the final of the ATP World Tour Finals in 2011 where he lost to Roger Federer. So far, Tsonga played a great year in 2012 with a record of 53 wins and 21 losses. In February, he even ranked 5th in the world – a career high for Tsonga. He is also one of a few players that reached the quarter-final for all four Grand Slams. Without a doubt, Tsonga is a great player and is able to surprise tennis fans at this year’s tournament.
Janko Tipsarevic: The Serbian player is currently 9th in the ATP rankings with a record of 55-24 in 2012. In 2011, he replaced Andy Murray after he withdrew and beat world no.1 Novak Djokovic with 3–6, 6–3, and 6–3. He will certainly be motivated to beat the like of Federer, Djokovic and Murray again, but it will be a long way for him. Tipsarevic qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals on Novembe 1st after he beat Juan Mónaco in the third round of the 2012 BNP Paribas Masters.
Stadium
The O2 Arena, previously known as the Millennium Dome, has been the venue of many high profiled music concerts and sporting events such as events for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. With a capacity of around 17,500 and the structure of the arena, these factors help increase and produce a terrific atmosphere and sporting feel good factor.
History
The tournament originally started in the 1970’s known as the Masters Grand Prix and was organised by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF). The ATP took over the tournament in 1990 and renamed it the ATP Tour World Championship. Now, players were able to receive world ranking points – which made this tournament even more attractive for the top players. In 1999, the ATP and the ITF agreed to a joint event and created the Tennis Masters Cup, which was renamed in 2009 to the ATP World Tour Finals and got scheduled to be held at The O2 in London from 2009 to 2012.
The qualification process is simple but brutally tough, finish the season in the top 8 and you’re in. Once you have qualified, this event in unlike most of the other events on the men’s tour, it is not a straightforward knock-out tournament. Eight players are divided into two groups of four, and play three round-robin matches against the other three players in their group. From there, the two players with the best records in each group progress to the semi-finals, with the winners meeting in the final to determine the champion. The winners can be awarded with up to 1500 rankings points as well as up to $5 million in total prize money, the chance to win one of the most prestigious titles in tennis and to finish as the season’s No. 1 player.
