Novak Djokovic faces Dominic Thiem at The O2 on Sunday as he begins the defence of his World Tour Finals title and his pursuit to reclaim the world No 1 ranking.
Djokovic saw his 122-week hold on top spot ended last weekend when he was usurped by Andy Murray as the world's top ranked player.
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Having previously admitted that his desire and love for the game had waned, it may be that this latest development adds fuel to the Djokovic fire as he looks to win a sixth World Tour Finals and end the season on top of the standings once again.
The 29-year-old has won the season-ending event the last four years and is a two-time Grand Slam champion this year, winning the Australian and French Opens to take his career tally to 14 major titles.
He also owns a dominant 23-0 record against his three rivals in the Lendl group and first to challenge that will be the youngest man at this week's finals - Thiem.
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The Austrian is making his debut at the event and after a sensational start to 2016, tailed off over the second half of the year.
He has never won a set against Djokovic, losing all three meetings including their most high-profile encounter at the French Open semi-final earlier this year where Djokovic won 6-2 6-1 6-4.
In recent weeks the 23-year-old has suffered surprise defeats to Jack Sock, Viktor Troicki and Alexander Zverev and has not gone beyond a quarter-final since the middle of September.
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However Thiem is not to be underestimated having claimed four titles this year, only Murray (eight) and Djokovic (seven) have won more although the last of those came back in June.
Djokovic too has wobbled since his dominant first half of the year - he has been beaten by Marin Cilic and Roberto Bautista Agut since using the US Open final to Stan Wawrinka and he has won just one title since completing his career Grand Sam at Roland Garros and that came with victory at the Rogers Cup in Toronto in July.
Whether Thiem __can capitalise remains to be seen but the opening singles match of the tournament promises to be an intriguing one.
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As is the case for every session the doubles will kick off the action from 12pm on Sky Sports and the first match of the week will see Mike and Bob Bryan taking on Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo.
The American brothers are seeded third this year and are four-time champions of the event but come into the tournament on the back of two years without a major title.
They face sixth-seeded pair Dodig and Melo who have won the last two Masters events they have entered in Cincinnati and Canada.
All the action from the O2 between November 13-20 will be live on Sky Sports across the week and if you are out and about you can follow on our Sky Sports apps and the website via our live blogs. Full schedule here.
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