CROATIA vs. ARGENTINA
Arena Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
DAVIS CUP FINAL

Croatia attempts to clinch its second Davis Cup trophy this week on home soil against Argentina, finalists on four previous occasions. Argentina has secured wins in 2002, 2006 and 2013 quarter-final ties.

Marin Cilic, who competed at last week’s Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and finished at a career-high year-end No. 6 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, leads the Croatian team. Ivo Karlovic, at 37 years of age, is set to become the oldest player to feature in a singles rubber in a final tie for 96 years (43-year-old Australian Norman Brookes in 1920).

Cilic takes on Argentina’s Federico Delbonis in Friday’s opening singles rubber, while Karlovic returns to the Croatian squad after a four-year absence to play Juan Martin del Potro. The draw ceremony, which was held on Thursday at the Vatroslav Lisinski concert hall, saw Croatia’s Franko Skugor and Ivan Dodig against Leonardo Mayer and Guido Pella in Saturday’s doubles rubber.

Del Potro, the Comeback Player of the Year in the ATP World Tour Awards presented by Moët & Chandon, admitted on Thursday, “I think Croatia are the favourites to win the tie. They are at home and have a very strong team, but we are looking forward to a great weekend and we are also very proud to be in another final.

Del Potro, who has a 4-1 FedEx ATP Head2Head lead against Karlovic, added, “I’ll have to be focused against Karlovic because one break of serve could cost me the match. It is great to be in the final at this point of my career after so many injuries.”

Cilic and del Potro, both former US Open champions, are set to meet each other in the first reverse singles rubber on Sunday at Arena Zagreb. “Del Potro and I have known each other for a very long time. He is a great player and a very nice person. We always get along very well on the ATP World Tour and he is a very positive character for world tennis.” Del Potro leads Cilic 8-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

“It will be nice to have [footballer Diego] Maradona here, but it makes no difference to us that he will be cheering on his compatriots,” added Cilic. “There is little or nothing between the two teams and hence our passionate fans can make all the difference.”

Team Nominations
Croatia: Marin Cilic, Ivo Karlovic, Borna Coric, Ivan Dodig; Captain: Zeljko Krajan
Argentina: Juan Martin del Potro, Federico Delbonis, Guido Pella, Leonardo Mayer; Captain: Daniel Orsanic

Davis Cup Final Schedule
Friday: Marin Cilic (CRO) vs. Federico Delbonis (ARG)
Friday: Ivo Karlovic (CRO) vs. Juan Martin del Potro (ARG)
Saturday: Ivan Dodig / Franko Skugor (CRO) vs. Leonardo Mayer / Guido Pella (ARG)
Sunday: Marin Cilic (CRO) vs. Juan Martin del Potro (ARG)
Sunday: Ivo Karlovic vs. Federico Delbonis (ARG)

The 2016 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals culminated in a historic title match between the top two ranked players in the world, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, marking the first time in history that the year-end No.1 Emirates ATP Ranking was on the line for both finalists in the final match of the season.

The dramatic finish to the season, which saw Murray defeat Djokovic 6-3, 6-4 in front of a 17,800 capacity crowd to become only the 17th player in history to finish as year-end world No.1 (since 1973), capped off another bumper edition of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at The O2.

This year’s event attracted a total attendance of 252,481, meaning the tournament has welcomed in excess of 250,000 fans each year to The O2 arena since 2009. The 2016 edition saw the season finale attract its two millionth fan since moving to London.

The tournament, aired on 59 broadcasters in 198 territories, attracted record audiences worldwide. Global viewership on television is forecast to come in at approximately 111 million, a 14% increase on 2015. On digital, broadcast streams on Tennis TV, the ATP’s official live streaming site, hit 7.5 million, a 4.1 % increase on the previous year.  Meanwhile the ATP’s websites registered 19.8 million page impressions, a 10.7% increase from 2015.

In the UK, Murray’s dramatic semi-final win against Canadian Milos Raonic drew a peak audience on the BBC of 4.5 million, the highest viewership of any Barclays ATP World Tour Finals match on BBC since the tournament moved to London in 2009. The 5-7, 7-6(5), 7-6(9) encounter, in which Murray saved a match point, was also the longest best-of-three set match in the history of the tournament, at three hours and 38 minutes. The final on Sunday evening also drew a peak audience of 4.5 million on the BBC.

Chris Kermode, ATP Executive Chairman & President, said: “It was unprecedented to have the No.1 ranking come down to the last match of the season for both players, providing a truly dramatic finish to a historic tournament. The O2 arena once again provided the perfect stage for such a thrilling finale to the 2016 ATP World Tour season.”

History was also made in the doubles event. While Henri Kontinen and John Peers captured their first season finale crown, it was Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares that snatched the year-end No.1 doubles team ranking, presented by Emirates. It marked the first time that two brothers, Andy and Jamie, were to finish atop the singles and doubles rankings respectively.

The tournament also launched a new partnership between the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and Unicef, the world’s leading children’s organisation. This included the launch of the Super 8, in which the world’s best eight qualified tennis players came together at the season-ending finale on a mission to help Unicef raise awareness and vital funds to keep children safe. The partnership raised more than US$250,000 that will help Unicef provide life-saving food, vaccines, education and protection for children in danger around the world.

The 2016 tournament also attracted a number of celebrities to The O2 across the eight days of competition. Among those to attend were Jose Mourinho, Gerard Pique, Jude Law, Woody Harrelson, Kevin Spacey, Hugh Grant, Clive Owen, and David Beckham.

The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals has a rich history dating back to the birth of the Masters in Tokyo in 1970. The tournament will be held at The O2 in London through 2018.

BY THE NUMBERS:
•    111,000,000 – estimated global TV viewership of the 2016 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.
•    82,600,000 – number of impressions from social media posts on Facebook, Twitter and MyATP now on Vixlet.
•    70,700,000 – number of impressions of #ATPFinals on Twitter.
•    39,900,000 – number of page impressions on ATP digital media platforms, including ATPWorldTour.com, BarclaysATPWorldTourFinals.com, mobile apps, and MyATP now on Vixlet.
•    7,500,000 – amount of prize money (US$) on offer at the 2016 season finale.
•    4,500,000 – peak audience on BBC1 during Andy Murray’s semi-final victory over Milos Raonic.
•    2,391,000 – amount of prize money (US$) that Andy Murray won as undefeated champion.
•    2,063,623 – cumulative attendance at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals since 2009.
•    351,984 – number of people to pass through The O2 site in 2016, including the non-ticketed Fan Zone, practice court, restaurants and bars, during the eight days of the tournament.
•    252,481 – attendance at the 2016 event.
•    250,000 – amount of money (US$) raised through the partnership between Unicef and the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, in aid of Unicef’s work to help protect children in danger around the world.
•    24 – number of consecutive matches won by World No.1 Andy Murray in finishing the season with titles in Beijing, Shanghai, Vienna, Paris, and London.
•    10 – number of nations represented in the year-end Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, the first time this has occurred since the inception of the rankings in 1973.  

Here are the key numbers behind a historic 2016 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals…

Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram might have discovered the key to playing their best under pressure this week during their run to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals doubles title match: Don’t realise you’re under pressure.

During their semi-final match in London, Klaasen/Ram led 6-1, 5-4 against Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares, the No. 1 duo in the Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings. But Klaasen thought the score was only 4-3 in the second set. So he freely put away volleys as if the match wasn’t on the line, delivering a backhand put-away to win the first point and a forehand overhead to go up 30/0.

“They made a few returns in the game, and I made some very good plays on them. But in my head, it didn’t feel like, I have to make these,” Klaasen told ATPWorldTour.com.

Ram, who was serving, was fully aware of the score, but he still ended the match with a service winner that sent the seventh seeds into the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals title match. Klaasen/Ram fell to fifth seeds Henri Kontinen/John Peers 2-6, 6-1, 10-8 on Sunday.

But reaching the season finale was quite the run for Klaasen/Ram, who were making their London debut. Neither of them seriously thought about becoming a pro tennis player when they were kids. In fact, both players didn’t even get serious about the sport until they were in their mid-teens.

Ram played tennis a lot, hitting with his dad for about an hour almost every day while growing up in California, Wisconsin and Indiana in the U.S. But his dad had no formal tennis experience and was a casual recreational player.

“Tennis was a glorified hobby for me until I was about 15,” Ram said.

As a result, he learned all he could while watching his childhood tennis idols. He marveled at Boris Becker’s athleticism. He shook his head at Ivan Lendl’s powerful groundstrokes off the ground.

But Ram’s countryman Pete Sampras ultimately became his favourite tennis hero. The 6’1” Sampras, with his legendary serve-and-volley game, was a natural model for Ram, who stands at 6’4”.

“Sampras was my guy,” he said.

You can see Sampras’ service motion in Ram’s game. Just like “Pistol Pete”, Ram points his left foot up while rocking back and tilts the racquet and ball towards him before hurling forward to make contact. His serve might not dominate like Sampras’ did, but it’s been more than effective this season with Klaasen. During their first full year together, they won two ATP World Tour Titles – Chengdu and Halle – and finished at No. 6 in the year-end Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings.

Klaasen, of South Africa, also spent his childhood years playing with his parents, especially his mom. “She says she was playing with me when other people didn’t want to play with me,” Klaasen said.

He began playing in junior tournaments when he was about 13, and he joined his first serious tennis environment when he was 16 at the ITF training centre in Johannesburg.

“I think the common thing for both of us was that tennis was always a source of enjoyment,” Ram said. “We both still enjoy the game a lot.”

The two also worry less about winning every match and focus more on getting better. Win or lose, Ram said, “We try to learn from it and just get better the next time we get to go out on the court.”

Their attitudes have helped them endure the ups and downs of an ATP World Tour season. In February, about eight months after they started playing together, Klaasen/Ram lost four consecutive first-round matches, going 0-8 for sets in Quito, Delray Beach, Acapulco and Indian Wells.

A lot of guys might have ended the partnership then, Ram said. But they stayed together, and at the next tournament, the Miami Open presented by Itau, Klaasen/Ram snapped their losing streak by edging Murray/Soares 10-7 in the Match Tie-break. Klaasen/Ram would go on to make the Miami final, their first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title match (l. to Herbert/Mahut).

“We have a pretty good understanding of that it’s not that end of the world if we win or lose a match,” Ram said.

Their playing styles, along with their outlooks, also match up well on the court. “They have the power of Ram and then the speed and the agility and the touch of Klaasen,” said Swede Robert Lindstedt, who’s played against the pairing three times. “It’s a great one-two punch. It’s very tough to break Rajeev to start with but then with the lightning that Raven is, it’s even tougher. It’s almost impossible.”

Opponents learned that throughout the year, and especially in London, where Klaasen/Ram enjoyed one of their best weeks as a team.

“This is probably the highest form of enjoyment for us. Hitting the ball [in practice] is still fun but actually performing when it matters is more fun for us,” Klaasen said. “And to be honest, if you can’t enjoy tennis in [The O2], then you probably should be doing something else, because it’s pretty spectacular to play tennis like this.”