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Renowned South African tennis analyst Bruce Davidson believes that Novak Djokovic will end the year as world No 1.
He says the 14-time grand slam champion’s scintillating form in the second part of the season will see him achieve this feat.
Speaking to City Press from Lisbon, Portugal, where he is with the SA Davis Cup team, Davidson said the Serbian has regained his belief in the technical team surrounding him.
“The way Djokovic is playing and going about his business, [there’s] no reason he won’t end the year as No 1,” Davidson said.
“He has that eye of a tiger again, and the belief and trust in his camp.”
The 31-year-old convincingly won the Shanghai Masters after thrashing Croatian Borna Coric
6-3 and 6-4 in the final last Sunday to claim his fourth title.
In the process, he also extended his winning run to 18 matches, following up his successes at Wimbledon, the Cincinnati Masters and the US Open.
With Roger Federer failing to defend the 1 000 points he won last year, Djokovic leap-frogged over him in the rankings.
The Serb is now a mere 35 points behind current world No 1 Rafael Nadal.
“But it’s going to be a tight race until the end, especially with the ATP Masters in Paris still to be played.”
Another important fact that Davidson pointed out is that even if Nadal recovered in time to play the final tournament, he may still lose his position as he had not won it before.
It seems Nadal’s injuries always escalate towards the end of a tough year.
“He was out of action this time last year, so in the next few weeks Novak is set to gain points and improve his ranking.”
The Spaniard will also have some points to defend at the Paris Masters as he reached the quarterfinal last year before injury forced him to withdraw from his match against Serbian Filip Krajinovic.
Djokovic hasn’t been No 1 since losing the ranking to Scotsman Andy Murray in the 2016 Paris Masters.
He has already booked his place at the ATP finals, along with Nadal, Federer, Juan Martín del Potro and Alexander Zverev. There are three spots still up for grabs.
This might open a chance for eighth-placed South African player Kevin Anderson, who “is in with a great chance ... if he keeps winning a few matches in the next two events”.
Davidson said Anderson stood a better chance of staying within the top eight players in the world as long as he didn’t lose his opening games at the Swiss Indoors or Vienna Open event, and as long as the players chasing him – such as ninth-placed Grigor Dimitrov, John Isner (10) and Kei Nishikori (11) – exit the tournaments early.
This year’s ATP finals will be played from November 12 to 18 at the O2 Arena in London in the UK.
