Continuing our Season In Review series, ATPWorldTour.com revisits the fiercest rivalries of 2016. Today we feature Andy Murray vs. Novak Djokovic:

It has been 10 years since Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic first faced off on the ATP World Tour. Ten years have passed since the Scot and the Serbian stepped on the indoor hard courts of Madrid for an unassuming third round meeting. Little did they know that a burgeoning rivalry that would span 35 encounters and feature a catalogue of heart-stopping moments was born on that day in the Spanish capital.

Close friends off the court and fierce rivals between the lines, Murray and Djokovic have had their share of memorable clashes over the years. They have met in all four Grand Slams, all nine ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events and twice at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

With two of the best backhands in the game and lightning-fast agility, they are mirror images from the back of the court: seemingly impenetrable elastic walls that can turn defence into offence in a flash, leaving opponents scratching their heads in disbelief. As the spotlight grows and drama builds, Murray and Djokovic raise their games to new heights and this was never more evident than in 2016, when the battle for Emirates ATP Rankings supremacy – World No. 1 – came down to the last match of the season at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Murray dramatically dethroned Djokovic in straight sets in the season finale and it was a change of fortunes for the new World No. 1 against his longtime rival, having dropped 13 of their previous 15 encounters. Djokovic was an indomitable force in their first four meetings of 2016, opening the season with a straight-set win in the Australian Open final – his fifth victory over Murray at Melbourne Park – and following that with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 triumph for the Mutua Madrid Open crown.

“I’m very pleased that I have developed a great rivalry with somebody that I’ve known for a very long time and somebody that I have a very good and friendly relationship with on and off the court,” Djokovic said after winning his 29th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in Madrid. Following the tournament, he had opened a seemingly insurmountable 9,025-point advantage over Murray in the Emirates ATP Rankings and the year-end No. 1 spot was all but secured by May… or so it seemed.

With Djokovic continuing to build momentum towards Roland Garros, where he would bid to complete the career Grand Slam, it was Murray who would stop him in his tracks at the Foro Italico in Rome. Meeting in back-to-back finals at the clay-court Masters 1000 events, the birthday boy notched his first victory over Djokovic on the dirt with a strong 6-3, 6-3 performance.

“Each time I go up against him, I know I have to play a great match to win,” Murray said after lifting the Rome trophy. “Sometimes you play great tennis and you don’t win, because he’s such a great player.”

They would meet for a third time in the clay-court season less than a month later at Roland Garros. Murray burst out of the gates, taking the opener 6-3, but Djokovic would not be denied his place in history, claiming the elusive crown in four sets and thus completing the career Grand Slam. It was their seventh clash in a major final, one meeting shy of the record held by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Murray scratched and clawed at Djokovic’s perch and the lead slowly began to evaporate. After squaring off three times in the span of five weeks, they would not meet again until the championship bout at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. An 9,025-point deficit suddenly became a near-1,000 point lead for Murray, as the Scot notched his first title at the season finale. He capped a stunning march to the pinnacle of the tennis world with his 24th consecutive match win and fifth straight title, cementing his place in the history books.

Touted as a match for the ages with so much on the line, it was Murray who grabbed the initiative. He had laboured on court for a marathon nine hours and 56 minutes entering the final, including the two longest best-of-three set matches in tournament history (since 1991), while Djokovic needed three hours less to reach the title match. But the top seed exhibited no signs of fatigue. Murray would emerge victorious on his third match point after one hour and 42 minutes, becoming the first British player to finish as year-end No. 1.

With the battle for No. 1 reaching its climax in the final weeks of the season, the two rivals are poised to continue fighting for the top spot as we turn the calendar to 2017.

View FedEx ATP Head2Head (Djokovic Leads 24-11)

Djokovic vs. Murray: 2016 Meetings

The ATP World Tour this week published the 2016 year-end Emirates ATP Rankings on ATPWorldTour.com, after a memorable and exciting season that saw Andy Murray clinch the year-end No. 1 ranking on the final day of the season at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

For the first time in the history of the Emirates ATP Rankings (since 1973), there were 10 different countries represented in the year-end Top 10. There were four new players in the year-end Top 10 from last season (No. 3 Milos Raonic, No. 6 Marin Cilic, No. 7 Gael Monfils and No. 8 Dominic Thiem). Monfils and Thiem are first-time additions while Raonic and Cilic are in the year-end Top 10 for the second time.

1. Andy Murray (GBR) – First Brit and 17th different year-end No. 1 continues 13 years of Big 4 dominance at the top of Emirates ATP Rankings

2. Novak Djokovic (SRB) – Finishes in Top 2 for sixth straight year and in Top 3 for 10th consecutive year

3. Milos Raonic (CAN) – Made biggest jump to No. 3 from previous year (14) since Djokovic in 2007 (16 to 3)

4. Stan Wawrinka (SUI) – Finishes No. 4 for third straight year and in Top 10 for fourth season in a row

5. Kei Nishikori (JPN) – Second Top 5 finish in three years and third straight year in Top 10

6. Marin Cilic (CRO) – Second Top 10 finish in three years and best Croat year-end ranking since Ljubicic (5) in 2006

7. Gael Monfils (FRA) – First time finish in Top 10 and ninth Frenchman in year-end Top 10

8. Dominic Thiem (AUT) – The 23-year-old is youngest in Top 10 and first Austrian in year-end Top 10 since Muster (9) in 1997

9. Rafael Nadal (ESP) –  Top 10 for 12th year in a row and one of six players with 12-more Top 10 finishes

10. Tomas Berdych (CZE) – Seventh consecutive finish in the Top 10

2016 Year-End Emirates ATP Rankings Quick Facts

* For the first time since 2007 France led all countries with 12 players in the Top 100 (including seven in the Top 50). Spain followed with 10 in the Top 100, including an ATP World Tour-high nine in the Top 50.

* Despite ‎losing year-end No. 1 ranking, Djokovic has been in the Top 2 every week since March 21, 2011. He has also finished 10 straight seasons in the Top 3. The only other players to finish in the Top 3 for 10-more consecutive years are Jimmy Connors (12), Ivan Lendl (10) and Federer (10).

* Six players in the Top 15 finished the season with career-high rankings: Murray (No. 1), Raonic (No. 3), Cilic (No. 6), David Goffin (No. 11), Nick Kyrgios (No. 13) and Lucas Pouille (No. 15). Wawrinka finishes at No. 4 for the third straight season.

* Juan Martin del Potro, who jumped from No. 581 in 2015 to No. 38, made the biggest ranking jump in the Top 100 from last season (543 spots). On Feb. 8, he dropped to No. 1,045.

* Teenager Alexander Zverev finished a year-end best No. 24. The 19-year-old German is the first teenager to finish in the Top 25 since Djokovic (No. 16) and Murray (No. 17) in 2006. Zverev led a group of 15 #NextGen players in the Top 200 year-end rankings.

* Zverev and American Taylor Fritz, who finished as the youngest player in the Top 100 at No. 76, were the two teenagers in the year-end Top 100. The 19-year-old Fritz is one of six #NextGen players from the U.S.

* Ivo Karlovic, 37, finished the season in the Top 20 for the first time and he is the oldest player in the year-end Top 20 since Ken Rosewall (43), at No. 12 in 1977.

* Andy and Jamie Murray are the first brothers to finish No. 1 in the singles and doubles team rankings respectively. They are also only brothers to be No. 1 in singles and doubles at any time, with Jamie atop the individual doubles rankings for nine weeks earlier this season.

* Nicolas Mahut is first Frenchman to finish a season at No. 1 in singles or doubles.

* Jack Sock (No. 23 singles, No. 16 doubles) and Feliciano Lopez (No. 28 singles, No. 11 doubles) finished season with highest combined singles and doubles ranking. Mahut was one back (No. 39 singles, No. 1 doubles). Six players overall ended the year in Top 50 of both singles and doubles.

Watch the full #NextGen Uncovered documentary this week where you normally watch ATP World Tour Uncovered. Play the video above for an excerpt.

Staking a claim on the ATP World Tour has never been tougher. In an era dominated by Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, you are given nothing. You take only what you bleed for. But there are those bold enough and talented enough who will sacrifice everything to challenge the establishment… Kyrgios, Zverev, Edmund and Khachanov to name just a few.

Filmed over three weeks in Asia, this is their story, an insider’s look at opportunity, pressure, great wins, agonizing losses, gain, pain and the sparkling lights of fame. It’s a story about a few young men who’ve earned the chance of a lifetime – to compete among the tennis elite on the ATP World Tour.

Over the past few years each of these men has given his all in a pursuit to be the best. We’ll go deeper than ever before to open a rarely seen window in tennis: one of aspiration and possibility.

What does this process look like from inside? What goes into creating a future champion? How do they deal with the pressure, expectation, the emotional rollercoaster, travel challenges and new cultures? Over the course of three weeks and five tournaments in China and Japan, these are the questions we will answer.

So join us on this intimate yet volatile journey to uncover what it takes to pursue your dreams.

This is #NextGen Uncovered.

Continuing our Season In Review series, ATPWorldTour.com revisits the fiercest rivalries of 2016. Today we feature Dominic Thiem vs. Alexander Zverev:

The future superstars of the ATP World Tour made their presence known with significant statements in 2016. Players aged 19-23 accounted for 11 titles in total and two of them wasted no time in kicking off a budding rivalry.

Longtime sporting adversaries Austria and Germany added Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev to the fray, with the pair meeting on four occasions this year. Each encounter proved to be an intense clash of exuberance and shotmaking, as 23-year-old Thiem and 19-year-old Zverev contested a trio of three-set clashes on the ATP World Tour, in addition to a four-set battle at Roland Garros.

With three meetings in a mere five-week span during the European clay-court swing, Thiem and Zverev got acquainted early and often this year. The Austrian would take all three encounters, prevailing in the Munich semi-finals, Nice final and Roland Garros third round, but it was far from straightforward.

Thiem rallied from a set down, saving eight of 11 break points for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 win in Munich and was pushed the distance in retaining the Nice title. It was the first career final for #NextGen star Zverev, who fell to the reigning champ 6-4, 3-6, 6-0. With a combined age of 41, it represented the youngest final on the ATP World Tour this year.

“Against a player like Dominic, who is one of the best clay-court players right now, you have to be at your best to beat him,” said Zverev. “There’s not a lot of chances.”

With Thiem hurtling towards the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings and Zverev rapidly ascending to the Top 20, the pair carried the momentum from the Nice final into Roland Garros for the second Grand Slam of the year. Both would enjoy their best major results and a third round encounter brought their growing rivalry to one of the biggest stages in the game. Court Suzanne-Lenglen welcomed Thiem and Zverev, with a Round of 16 berth at stake, and they did not disappoint the French faithful.

Like he did in Munich, Thiem was forced to battle back from an early deficit. He missed six break chances late in the first set as Zverev went on to snatch the opener and grab a quick break in the second. But Thiem struck back, reeling off five straight games and eventually putting the match out of reach with a 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory after nearly three hours.

“I knew already before the match that it was going to be a very tough one against such a great player like Sascha,” said Thiem. “I think the little difference today was probably the three years’ age difference.”

The pair would wait five months before capping their season series with a first-round meeting at the ATP World Tour 500 event in Beijing. Fresh off claiming his first tour-level trophy at the St. Petersburg Open, stunning Tomas Berdych and Stan Wawrinka in the semis and final, Zverev scored his third Top 10 win in four days with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 win over Thiem.

With both players continuing to plot their ascent up the Emirates ATP Rankings, look for many more encounters in the years to come.

View FedEx ATP Head2Head (Thiem Leads 3-1)

Thiem vs. Zverev: 2016 Meetings

Twenty years ago was the golden age of the big server.

Players such as Goran Ivanisevic, Pete Sampras, Richard Krajicek and Boris Becker dominated during an unprecedented period of first-serve dominance, the mid- to late 1990s. Today, it’s superiority behind the second serve that has risen to prominence as players look to climb the Emirates ATP Rankings.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of first- and second-serve win percentages beginning in 1991, when such statistics were first kept in tennis, to the 2016 season, shows a clear and dramatic transition of where players are excelling to begin the point.

Performance categories were created with the following criteria:

• First-serve points won at 80 per cent or higher;

• Second-serve points won at 55 per cent or higher.

1996 = Best Year For First-Serve Performance

The evolution of sport is not always linear. We think today’s players should be better than yesterday’s, but that’s simply not the case. You have to go back 20 years, to 1996, to find the last season in which at least eight players won 80 per cent of their first-serve points.

1. Goran Ivanisevic (85.5%)

2. Pete Sampras (82.9%)

3. Richard Krajicek (82.7%)

4. Boris Becker (82%)

5. Mark Philippoussis (80.9%)

6. Greg Rusedski (80.7%)

7. Marc Rosset (80.7%)

8. Michael Stich (80.3%)

2011 = Best Year For Second-Serve Performance

The year 2011 saw the most players (11) win 55 per cent or better of their second-serve points. That same year also had the greatest disparity in favour of second-serve performance, with only two players (Ivo Karlovic, 80.3%, and Gilles Muller, 80%) at or above the 80 per cent mark on first-serve points won. The 11 players who won at least 55 per cent of their second-serve points in 2011:

1. Juan Carlos Ferrero (57.3%)

2. Roger Federer (57.1%)

3. Federico Delbonis (56.9%)

4. Rafael Nadal (56.7%)

5. Andy Roddick (55.7%)

6. Novak Djokovic (55.6%)

7. John Isner (55.4%)

8. Juan Martin del Potro (55.4%)

9. Janko Tipsarevic (55.4%)

10. David Ferrer (55.4%)

11. Tommy Robredo (55%)

Tipping Point = 2001

In the 10 years from 1991 to 2000, there was only one year (1991) where the total number of players who won 55 per cent of their second-serve points was more than the total number of players who won 80 per cent of their first-serve points. Then in 2001, players’ second-serve performances surged ahead, and it has stayed that way since.

The last two seasons (2015 and 2016) have seen four players each year win at least 80 per cent of their first-serve points, which is the best since 2000. It is definitely a resurgence, but interestingly it has not been at the expense of second-serve performance, which has stayed solid, with 10 players winning 55 per cent plus in 2015, and nine in 2016.

Summary

The cyclical nature of tennis is influenced by new technology as well as the strategic chess moves and counter-moves that players make to find a critical edge. There is no denying that proficiency behind your second serve is our sport’s current global phenomenon.

How First Serve Dominance Has Changed From 1991-2016

Juan Martin del Potro has endured more pain than most tennis players during his injury-stinted career, including four wrist surgeries during the past seven years. So of course he wasn’t going to let a broken left pinky finger stop him during his final match of the season on Sunday.

Del Potro and Marin Cilic were tied two sets a piece during their Davis Cup match when the Argentine broke his smallest left finger while trying to catch a missed Cilic serve off the bounce.

Del Potro played through the injury, though, and improved upon his already impressive 2016 by coming back from two-sets down for the first time in his career to beat Cilic 6-7(4), 2-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 in four hours and 53 minutes. Del Potro’s win forced a fifth rubber in the Davis Cup final between Argentina and Croatia, and his teammate Federico Delbonis completed the turnaround by beating Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic to give Argentina its first Davis Cup title.

“My finger is broken but I won’t mind one bit if we win the Davis Cup,” del Potro told reporters after his win, while Delbonis was still on court. “This was an emotionally exhausting match and one of the biggest wins of my career. Thanks to all those who prevented me from retiring. I was very close to never playing again and, well, here I am.”

The 28 year old has said he thought about giving up tennis during his latest comeback. But he didn’t, and tennis fans were the beneficiaries this season.

Del Potro, No. 38 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, has climbed 1,007 spots since February. He beat Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal this season. Del Potro also became a titlist again this year, hoisting his first ATP World Tour trophy since January 2014 by winning the If Stockholm Open in October (d. Sock).

All of his accomplishments earned him his second Comeback Player of the Year honour in the 2016 ATP World Tour Awards presented by Moët & Chandon. Del Potro also received the award in 2011 after coming back from right-wrist surgery that he underwent in May 2010. The Tandil native also had three surgeries on his left wrist in 2014 and 2015.

Join us in coming weeks as we re-live the drama and excitement of 2016 in our annual review of the ATP World Tour season.

We begin this week with the five most intriguing rivalries of 2016. We’ll also look at the best matches, biggest comebacks, most stunning upsets, statistics, hot shots, off-court fun and more.

Look for new content each day as we reflect on a great year and count down to the start of the 2017 season, which begins January 1st in Brisbane (and Jan. 2 in Doha and Chennai).

The Rivalries
Andy Murray v Milos Raonic

More to come…