NOVAK Djokovic wouldn't regard it as a surprise if he reclaimed his World No 1 spot from Andy Murray after just one week but even he must be slightly shocked at the manner in which the fates appear to be giving him a helping hand. If Murray thought that claiming the top spot in Paris would give him the benefit of any advantage going in London this week, he has discovered that in fact the opposite is the case.
While the Scot must still overcome Stan Wawrinka just to ensure his semi-final place and play three straight days to take this title, the Serb's first trick was to locate a group including three men to whom he has never lost, two of whom were debutants. When one of them, Gael Monfils, subsequently pulled out with a rib injury, in came David Goffin, another ATP World Tour Finals debutant who had never won a single match against the Serb.
The Belgian - an alternate who had been hanging around all week - was able to offer only meagre resistance against the World No 2 yesterday, in the course of this 6-1, 6-2 defeat and seemed happy enough to have walked away with £179,000 for 67 minutes of work. As of last night, having played a match more, Djokovic had nosed in front of Murray in the race for Christmas No 1 with 11,380 points to Murray's 11,310.
"I have not the same, I guess, perception of 'surprise' as you do," said Djokovic. "To me, that [reclaiming the World No 1 spot] wouldn't be a surprise. It is obviously something that you wish for as a player, to have everything in your hands, not to depend on other players."
Typically for the Serb these days, however, even such a routine win was laced with a sprinkling of controversy. As he served for a 4-1 first set lead, he became engaged with umpire Fergus Murphy and the tournament referee after being issued with a time violation warning. A bit like the distinction between a 'soft' and a 'hard' Brexit, the Serb expected a 'soft' warning for his first offence.
"First of all, I accept and I know that I'm one of the players that takes the most time," he said. "There is no doubt. I'm not running away from that. Every time I'm late, if I get a so-called soft warning or pre-warning, I'll accept it and I won't say a word. But I think it's fair, correct and respectful towards the player and to the game if you go over the limit for first time that you at least get a heads up."
Djokovic, the winner of Group Ivan Lendl, will be as eager as anyone to discover the outcome of today's meeting between Murray and Wawrinka. Should both Wawrinka and Nishikori win in straight sets today, Murray would be left with the poorer sets won/lost ratio (4:3 compared to Nishikori's 5:2 and Wawrinka's 4:2) and would be eliminated. "All I know is if I want to have a chance to qualify, I need to win," said Wawrinka. "That's all I'm trying to do. It's always better to win in two sets, but you don't decide before the match."
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