Novak Djokovic is ready to battle Rafael Nadal for the World number one spot as the season reaches its climax in London.
After splitting the four grand slams between them, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are set to decide the end of year world number one ranking this week.
Ahead of the ATP World Tour Finals in London, the Spaniard currently holds a 640 point lead ahead of Djokovic.
However his win in Paris a week ago, suggests that Djokovic is more than ready to make a deep run at the end of the season.
Speaking to the media yesterday, the Serb spoke about how ready he is for the chase to be world number one, “It is up for grabs for both of us. This tournament is going to decide,” Djokovic said.
“He’s in a better position, but after winning Paris-Bercy I put myself in a pretty good position. Obviously it doesn’t depend only on me, it depends on how he does in the tournament.
“But I’ll try to focus on my matches and obviously right from the beginning, out of the blocks, you have to start with a real intensity and quality of tennis because it’s the elite eight players of the world.”
“There’s no smoothing your way into the tournament, you have to be very sharp from the start. In my personal opinion it’s one of the two biggest achievements you can have as a professional competitor and tennis player – winning a Grand Slam and being No 1 in the world at the end of the season.”
The Serb has been year-end world number one on five occasions, with his fifth coming last year. But if he wants to win it for a sixth time in his career, he will have to reach at least the final.
As for Nadal he knows that a couple of wins in London will all but assure him a place as the year-end world number one for a fifth time in his career.
The Spaniard will begin his campaign on Monday night against defending champion Alexander Zverev.
While Djokovic will play his opening match tomorrow afternoon against Matteo Berrettini.
