Britain’s Andy Murray wants to end the season “on a high note” as world number one ahead of the ATP World Tour Finals in London.
Argentine previously won this ATP World Tour Award in 2011
For the second time, players voted Juan Martin del Potro as the Comeback Player of the Year in the ATP World Tour Award presented by Moët & Chandon following a successful return from wrist injury. The 28-year-old Argentine is the third player after Sergi Bruguera and Tommy Haas to win this category twice.
He sent a video message from his native Tandil to accept his award during Thursday night’s ceremony at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals Official Launch in London.
“Thank you very much for this award… I want to thank my fellow players for choosing me,” he said. “It was a very special year to me. I didn’t expect the result that I had, and I’m so happy to share this award with you.”
Visit ATP World Tour Awards Section
Del Potro was previously voted by his peers as the Comeback Player of the Year in 2011. He finished back in the Top 10 in 2013, only to be sidelined again – this time by a left wrist injury requiring multiple surgeries. Outside the Top 1000 of the Emirates ATP Rankings early in 2016, del Potro made his return in February with a semi-final effort at the Delray Beach Open and rose to No. 38 by November with a 30-match win effort.
Among his season highlights, del Potro beat then-No. 1 Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal en route to a silver medal at the Rio Olympics, made the quarter-finals of the US Open and won his first tour-level title since 2014 at the If Stockholm Open, securing his return to the Top 50. Julien Benneteau, Ivo Karlovic and Florian Mayer were also nominated in this category.
American twins extend record reign in doubles category
Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan received their trophies as ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favourite presented by Moët & Chandon during the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals Official Launch on Thursday night in London.
Visit ATP World Tour Awards Section
“It means a lot to be named the Fan Favourite,” said Mike Bryan. “One of the reasons why we love playing the game is to play in front of these fans around the world, and we really appreciate the support. We want to thank them for voting for us. It’s going to be fun to step out on the court at The O2 and finish the year strong in front of a hopefully packed house out there.”
The 38-year-old American twins, who will be going for their fifth season finale title this coming week at The O2 in London, received 25 per cent of votes cast to extend their record reign in this category to 12 straight years. Jamie Murray & Bruno Soares finished second in the voting, followed by Spaniards Feliciano Lopez & Marc Lopez, Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert & Nicolas Mahut and the Canadian-American duo of Vasek Pospisil & Jack Sock.
Jamie Delgado tells BBC London it is “a huge honour” to be part of world number one Andy Murray’s coaching team ahead of the start of the ATP World Tour Finals.
| ATP World Tour Finals |
|---|
| Venue: O2 Arena, London Date: 13-20 November |
| Coverage: Live coverage on BBC Two, BBC Radio 5 live sports extra & BBC Sport website, tablets, mobiles and app. Click here for details. |
Andy Murray expects Novak Djokovic to “start playing his best tennis again” soon as the pair prepare to compete for the world number one ranking.
Britain’s Murray overtook Djokovic in the rankings on Monday and needs to match his results at next week’s ATP World Tour Finals to end 2016 on top.
However, the Serb has won the past four titles at London’s O2 Arena.
“There’s no reason to think he won’t have a really good tournament,” said 29-year-old Murray.
Djokovic’s form has been the subject of much debate in recent months, with just one tournament win to his name since June and early exits at Wimbledon and the Olympics.
Murray added: “Before then he’d been playing great – it wasn’t months, it was years he was playing great tennis.
“So for him not play his best tennis for a couple of months, I’m sure it’s not too much to worry about and I’d imagine shortly he’ll be back to playing his best tennis.”
Djokovic, 29, will open the singles tournament against Austria’s Dominic Thiem on Sunday, before Murray plays Croatia’s Marin Cilic in his first group match on Monday.
The Scot has lost just three matches since he last played Djokovic in June, when the Serb completed the career Grand Slam by winning the French Open.
Murray’s spectacular run of form culminated in a first Paris Masters win on Sunday, and the number one ranking for the first time on Monday.
“It feels good, obviously, but I don’t feel any different this week than I did the week before,” he said.
“Maybe when you step on the court you have a little bit more confidence and feel a little bit better about yourself when you’re hitting balls – but I didn’t feel much different when I woke up on Monday morning. I felt just the same.”
On his indifferent form, Djokovic said: “In sport you can’t always win, and the high standard of results and success that I’ve had the last couple of years probably has taken its toll.
“I didn’t get to recover as fast after the French Open to be ready to compete on the highest level after that.
“All in all it was a very good year that I’m proud of. I’m here in London to try to crown this year with the best possible result.”
| ATP World Tour Finals group stage | |
|---|---|
| John McEnroe Group | Ivan Lendl Group |
| 1. Andy Murray (GB) | 2. Novak Djokovic (Ser) |
| 3. Stan Wawrinka (Swi) | 4. Milos Raonic (Can) |
| 5. Kei Nishikori (Jpn) | 6. Gael Monfils (Fra) |
| 7. Marin Cilic (Cro) | 8. Dominic Thiem (Aut) |
Appearances: Seven (eight qualifications)
Finals: None Semi-finals: Three Win-loss record: 11-11
2008: Murray qualified for the year-end tournament – then known as the Masters Cup and held in Shanghai – for the first time. He beat Andy Roddick, Gilles Simon and Roger Federer, but lost to Nikolay Davydenko in the semi-finals.
2009: He won two of his three group matches but Juan Martin del Potro’s win over Federer saw the Argentine advance at Murray’s expense.
2010: Wins over Robin Soderling and David Ferrer saw Murray advance to the semi-finals, despite a straight-sets defeat by Federer in his second match. He lost a hard-fought semi-final featuring two tie-breaks to Rafael Nadal.
2011: Murray lost his opening match in London to Ferrer before withdrawing from the tournament, his place going to Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic.
2012: The last time Murray reached the knockout stages of the tournament. The newly-crowned US Open champion beat Tomas Berdych and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in his group, either side of a defeat to Djokovic, but lost to Federer in the semi-final.
2013: Murray’s first Wimbledon title was the highlight of his season as he qualified as the fourth-ranked player, but he withdrew before the tournament to have surgery on a back problem and was replaced by Richard Gasquet.
2014: Defeat to this year’s group-stage opponent Kei Nishikori and a 6-0 6-1 hammering by Federer saw Murray eliminated before the semi-finals.
2015: Murray opened his campaign with victory over Ferrer, but defeats to Nadal and Stan Wawrinka – another of this year’s opponents – saw him eliminated at the group stage.