LONDON • The last time Novak Djokovic played at the O2 Arena in 2016, he suffered a chastening defeat at the hands of Andy Murray which confirmed the end of his dominance in men's tennis.
His return to the ATP Finals on Monday, after missing last year's edition because of an elbow injury, offered conclusive proof that the Serb is once again top dog.
The 31-year-old, bidding to equal Roger Federer's record of six titles, produced an immaculate display to tame American giant John Isner - who was making his tournament debut - 6-4, 6-3.
"The match was great, obviously," said Djokovic, who had just six unforced errors and won 86 per cent of points on his serve.
"I had three breaks of serve of John which is sometimes mission impossible but I managed to be at the right place at the right time.
"I held serve well, I backed it up from the baseline, I played very solid and didn't give him many opportunities."
He lost only four points on his own serve in the first set but what was most worrying for Isner was the way his opponent managed to read his towering delivery, pinging back returns to the baseline with monotonous regularity.
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86%
Points Novak Djokovic won on his serve against John Isner.
"He's the best returner I've ever faced for sure," Isner said. "Sometimes you got to hope he's a bit off. Unfortunately, I don't think that was the case tonight."
The writing was on the wall for Isner when Djokovic broke serve at 3-3 in the second set. Two games later, he sealed victory with a crosscourt backhand winner.
Already guaranteed to end the year as world No. 1 after winning Wimbledon and the US Open, Djokovic is a massive favourite to complete an incredible resurgence from world No. 22 in June with another title in London's docklands.
Since the start of Wimbledon, he has now won 32 out of 34 matches.
He will now set his sights on Germany's Alexander Zverev in his second round-robin match after the 21-year-old beat Croatia's Marin Cilic 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-1) earlier.
Meanwhile, Djokovic also leapt to Federer's defence after claims that the former world No. 1 enjoys preferential treatment on Tour.
Frenchman Julien Benneteau caused a stir when he said tournament referees were often kinder to the Swiss when it came to scheduling his matches.
Benneteau pointed to the Australian Open, where he said the 20-time Grand Slam champion had played "12 or 13" of his 14 matches at Melbourne in the past two years at night, avoiding the often-scorching temperatures.
"At the end of the day, in a way he deserves the special treatment because he's six-time champion of Australian Open and arguably the best player ever," Djokovic said.
"People want to see him play on centre court, and they want to see him play in the best hours, which is 7:30 at night in Rod Laver Arena.
"You have to understand that Federer is a driving force of tennis in terms of revenue and attention."
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
ATP FINALS
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