Djokovic seeks mastery at London ATP Tour Finals
Novak Djokovic has won three of the four grand slams and has claimed six of the season's Masters tournaments, the most prestigious events after the grand slams. A fourth consecutive victory at the season ending championships in London would burnish a dazzling season.
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Djokovic will start his quest for history on Sunday when he starts the defence of his ATP Tour Finals crown.
The 28-year-old Serbian is seeking an unprecendented fourth straight title. Such an achievement will be a fitting end to a year in which he has contested all four grand slam finals and won three of them.
He has 78 wins from his 83 matches over the last 11 months in which he has collected majors at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
Only an inspired Stan Wawrinka denied him the French Open - the only grand slam prize missing from his trophy cabinet. There was also a record six Masters titles.
Since losing to Roger Federer in the Cincinnati Masters final in August, Djokovic has racked up a 22-match winning run that has brought him the US Open, the China Open and Masters titles in Shanghai and Paris.
Djokovic, who opens his Tour Finals challenge against Japan's Kei Nishikori on Sunday, said he feels in fine fettle. "I always look to set up new goals to try to get as far as possible in terms of my abilities and achievements."
The top seed will also take on third seed Roger Federer and the fifth seed Tomas Berdych in the round-robin stages. The top two from the group advance to the semi-final.
Federer, 34, is competing for the 14 consecutive year in the elite eight man competition. .
The 17-time grand slam champion, defeated by Djokovic in the Wimbledon and the US Open finals, pulled out of last year's final against the Serb just hours before the scheduled start due to an injury, but he expects to mount another strong challenge for the title.
"I've never had issues getting motivated for this event at the end of the season," Federer said. "It's a massive priority for me and because it's a priority it helps me play better.
"Indoors has helped my game throughout my career and the idea of playing fellow top 10 players gets me really excited."
The other group in the round-robin tournament features the local hero Andy Murray, former world number one Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer and Wawrinka.
Most of the interest in that group will focus on former Wimbledon champion Murray, who has made it clear his priority is Great Britain's attempt to win the Davis Cup for the first time since 1936.
Britain face Belgium on clay in Ghent less than a week after the Tour Finals and Murray has spent most of this week practising on that surface at Queen's Club in London.
But the world number two, who starts against Ferrer on Monday, hopes to make the best of a difficult situation. "It's been tricky with my preparation being mainly on the clay but it was never going to be perfect," Murray said.
"But I would have signed up to be in this situation at the end of the year hopefully I can play some good tennis here and in the Davis Cup."
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