SERBIA'S Novak Djokovic refused to get carried away despite his superb Masters Cup triumph over Nikolay Davydenko moving the Australian Open champion within touching distance of world No2 Roger Federer.
The 21-year-old world No3 was in masterful form as he completely dominated the experienced Russian world No5, and after a brief second-set fightback only delayed the result, Djokovic deservedly won the season-ending showpiece 6-1, 7-5.
The win end
ed a run of three successive final defeats since he won May's Rome Masters and moved him within ten points of Federer in the world rankings. But despite Federer losing his record spell as No1 to Rafael Nadal this year after a superb season from the Spaniard, Djokovic knows he still has a lot of work to do ahead of his Australian Open title defence in two months.
"Certainly I believe that I have quality to reach the top spot in the upcoming year or maybe in the next couple or maybe even ten years. That is my lifetime goal that I've been always trying to achieve," he said.
"But I learned my lesson. If I pay too much attention to the rankings, it doesn't go the right way, so I just want to improve my game. I know there is still room for improvement and I just want to get my game to the highest possible level and the results will come. It's going to be a long season, there are many tournaments and many players who are candidates for the top spot. I think Rafa really deserves to be number one this year. He's been playing the best tennis by far.
"The interesting thing for the upcoming year is going to be the fact that there is so many players. Now it's not only about the two players any more; it's about five, six, seven players who are playing really well and can win against each other."
Last year on his Masters Cup debut Djokovic lost all three matches without winning a set, but returning as a grand slam champion he lost only to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a dead rubber at the end of the round robin stage, and he saved his best display for the final.
After wrapping up the win in one hour and 42 minutes, Djokovic added: "It means a lot. I would put it in the same league as a grand slam because the best eight players in the world are participating. Everybody has a lot of motivation to end up the season in the best possible way."
The full article contains 437 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
