Can Djokovic be stopped?

Novak Djokovic had a phenomenal 2015 season, winning a career best 11 titles. But the quality of his wins was even more impressive than the quantity. His haul included three of the four Grand Slam tournaments, six of the nine Masters 1000 tournaments and the end of season Barclay’s ATP World Tour Finals. He enters the 2016 season having been ranked No. 1 for 78 consecutive weeks. He seems untouchable at the moment, and if he continues last season’s form he will likely remain so. But even if his level dips a little, do any of the other members of the “Big 4” stand a chance of overtaking him?

If anyone can bring down the new dog it might just be the old dog!

Let’s rule out Nadal immediately. Although the end of his 2015 season was much stronger than his start, overall his level was well below par for him and not in the same time zone as Djokovic. And although their head-to-head is deadlocked at 23-23, Novak has defeated Rafa in eight of their last nine encounters, dating back to 2013. This is a trend that isn’t going to be reversed by Rafa raising his level this season, even if Novak doesn’t continue at his peak level.

What about Murray? The World No. 2 didn’t have his best season but it wasn’t bad either, picking up four titles including two Masters 1000 crowns. However, his recent head-to-head with Djokovic is even more demoralising than Nadal’s, having won just one match in their last eleven encounters since 2014. Although Murray’s win came quite recently, they played each other seven times in 2015 with Djokovic prevailing on every other occasion and typically with ease. According to the rankings, Andy is closer to upsetting Novak’s stunning run than any other player, but he’s also about as far away from taking the No. 1 ranking as a World No. 2 can be!

That leaves the elder statesmen, Federer. At 34, surely he should be thinking about hanging up his racket, right? Not so fast. Statistically Roger has been playing some of the best tennis of his career, with his best ever serving stats and healthy numbers on return too. Roger and Novak met eight times in 2015, all in finals apart from their round-robin match in the World Tour Finals. Although Djokovic won five of these encounters, Federer's three victories were all in straight sets, while the same can be said of only two of Djokovic’s wins. Not to take anything away from Novak as a win is a win, but for me Roger is clearly the last man standing in the way of Novak completely dominating the tour. If anyone can bring down the new dog it might just be the old dog!

Federer has teamed up with recently retired player, Ivan Ljubicic for 2016, a move that has been interpreted as Federer trying to get the upper hand against Djokovic. The move hasn’t gone unnoticed by Novak, who is good friends with Ljubicic, commenting, “He knows my game.” It looks like retirement will have to wait for Federer as he single-handedly attempts to put a stop to his legacy of records being overthrown.