Monday 7 March 2011

Novak Djokovic - Battle For #2


Novak Djokovic recently beat Roger Federer 6-3, 6-3 in the Dubai final.

Novak Djokovic will be looking to continue his sizzling start to the 2011 ATP World Tour season at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells this week.

The Serbian could replace his rival, Roger Federer, at No. 2 in the South African Airways 2011 ATP Rankings, by virtue of his performance at the first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament of the year.
Djokovic, who reached a career-high No. 2 on 1 February 2010, could rank behind World No. 1 Rafael Nadal on 21 March through three different scenarios.

Djokovic will become World No. 2 if:

- He wins the Indian Wells tournament;

- He reaches the final and Federer loses before the title-match; or,

- He advances to the semi-finals and Federer loses before the quarter-finals.

Rankings Breakdown: Federer | Djokovic

Federer currently has 7,965 South African Airways 2011 ATP Rankings points compared to 7,800 points for Djokovic. At Indian Wells last year, Federer reached the third round (l. to Baghdatis) and earned 45 ranking points. Djokovic exited in the Last 16 (l. to Ljubicic) and won 90 points.

Djokovic, the 2008 titlist (d. Fish), must therefore win 211 more South African Airways 2011 ATP
Rankings points than Federer if he is to regain World No. 2 after the Californian tournament.

The 23-year-old Djokovic is on a 14-match winning streak, including his second title at the Australian Open (d. Murray) in January and his third straight triumph at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (d. Federer) nine days ago.

Since reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals (l. to Berdych) in July 2010, Djokovic has compiled a 42-8 match record.

By comparison, in the same period, Federer has a 49-6 mark. At Indian Wells, the Swiss superstar is 27-9 overall, which includes three straight titles in 2004 (d. Henman), 2005 (d. Hewitt) and 2006 (d. Blake).

Courtesy: ATP

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