The ATP Cup has seen plenty of drama, lots of exciting games and, almost more important than anything else, millions of dollar donated to the Australian bushfire charity fight. On Sunday, however, the winners were decided in an intense final that owed a lot to the rivalry between two men at the top of their game.
World number one Rafael Nadal and world number two Novak Djokovic were always likely to clash in this event once it was announced that they would both be playing it as a warm-up to the Australian Open. Roger Federer may have stepped back from non-Grand Slam events in a bid to stay fresh, but in Nadal and Djokovic, the sport of tennis has two warriors who seem unable to put their weapons down even for a decent night’s sleep.
Australia had posed a significant threat the higher-ranked teams in the competition, driven on as they were by Nick Kyrgios and Alex De Minaur, as well as a passionate home crowd who desperately wanted to see their charity-raising heroes make it to the final. Unfortunately, Antipodean tennis fans were left crestfallen in two respects. Nick Kyrgios played and lost against Agut rather than Nadal, denying us tennis purists the fun of a rivalry borne out of pure opposite repellence. Then, with De Minaur’s defeat to Nadal, the third rubber was dead as the atmosphere at a VAR-appreciation party.
Spain, therefore, moved into the final looking to add the ATP Cup to the David Cup they won in November. That wasn’t to be the case, however, as Serbia came from behind to win the final in pulsating fashion.
The first game saw Roberto Bautista Agut again get his country off to the best possible start, as he beat Dusan Lajovic 7-5, 6-1 with comparative ease. The second game was the clincher. It was Nadal to win the tournament against Djokovic. But the Spaniard would be undone.
While Nadal has an incredible record against virtually every pro on the tour, Djokovic actually leads 29-26 in their personal head-to-head after this latest thrilling victory for the challenger in their professional lifetime battle. Of the last 18 games between the men, Nadal has only ever won on clay, with his last hard court victory against the Serb coming way back in the 2013 U.S. Open Final.
It was on the Australian Open hard court surface that this latest meeting saw Djokovic extend his record against the world number one, as he beat Nadal in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4).
With the match level, it all went down to a doubles decider, but Nadal would not be involved and nor would Agut. Spain went for fresh legs in Pablo Carreno Busta and Feliciano Lopez, who is a something of a doubles specialist, but it was to no avail. Serbia won convincingly, again in straight sets as they triumphed 6-3, 6-4.
Afterwards, Djokovic told the waiting cameras that he would “remember this experience for the rest of my life,” adding that it was “one of the nicest moments of my career.”
While Nadal was gracious to his opponent, he did speak out about the partisan nature of the pro-Serbian crowd. Djokovic, graceful as ever and humble in victory, chose to speak about the money raised for the bushfire relief effort in Australia. With the efforts of the players – led by Nick Kyrgios – having raised huge amounts of money, the ATP themselves could hardly sit idly by without joining in and they announced that they will be donating £383,000 to the charity drive, the funds to be divided between the Nature Recovery Fund and the WWF in Australia.
“This donation is on behalf of all the players and our thoughts and prayers go to all those affected.” Djokovic, who is the president of the ATP Player Council, told the crowd.
While Serbia won the ATP Cup, the real winners were Australians as tennis lent a helping hand to the relief effort and quite rightly so. Let’s hope that the Australian Open in the coming weeks is played out to a country mending their wounds and enjoying red hot action only on the court in Melbourne. Novak Djokovic, just as he was with the crowd during the ATP Cup, will head into action as a strong favourite.
