Does Djokovic Still Have a Shot at Clinching Year-End Number One?

Hi folks, I’m finally done with exams and looking forward to following the World Tour Finals in London for the next week or so. I have already posted this on Facebook but the groups for this year will be as follows:

McEnroe Group – Murray, Wawrinka, Nishikori, Cilic
Lendl Group – Djokovic, Raonic, Monfils, Thiem

Djokovic got the easiest group possible and he is 23-0 in the collective head-to-head with the members of his group. Murray, on the other hand, has some potentially tricky opponents against whom he is collectively 27-12.

That said, given Murray’s recent form, he should easily pass the group stage and given Djokovic’s draw you would hope he can do the same.

As you would have noticed by now, I am not very optimistic about Djokovic’s chances to take back the number one ranking from Murray in London. Murray is likely to win the title if Djokovic does not stop him in which case he will be year-end number one.

I am still very pessimistic about Djokovic’s chances but does he have no chance whatsoever? Is it a done deal? We have seen stranger things happen in tennis so no it is not quite a done deal but I think it will almost take a miracle.

Either Djokovic has to find form from nowhere and play his best tennis or Murray must lose form from nowhere and play some of his worst tennis.

Or two players from Murray’s group has to play out of their minds. We know Cilic and Stan can defeat Murray or just about anyone else for that matter if they play their best tennis. Cilic recently did it in the Cincy final.

Wawrinka is due for some good form too. If Murray loses to those two and fails to qualify for the semis while Djokovic does qualify from his relatively weak group with just one more win than Murray he will end the year number one.

He currently trails Murray effectively by only 130 points(if you deduct the 275 Davis Cup points from Murray) which means the extra round robin win will give him the 200 points to pass Murray.

But that is a very unlikely scenario. Murray is more likely to win all his group matches or at least two and make the semis. Whoever he plays against in the semis and final he is likely to defeat too, Djokovic included.

As you can see I am still not very optimistic about Djokovic’s chances but like I said tennis is a funny game and we have seen stranger things happen.

Tomorrow the Mcenroe Group will start proceedings when Wawrinka plays Nishikori and Murray play Cilic. Cilic probably needs to win that if there is any chance that Murray doesn’t pass the group stage.

We gonna see what’s going on!

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