What's on the Line for Novak Djokovic at the 2015 World Tour Finals?

As he closes out an historic tennis season, superstar Novak Djokovic looks to write the perfect ending by capturing the 2015 World Tour Finals next week in London. The World No. 1 has been so dominant that every match is seemingly another opportunity to lap all other legacies.

There is plenty at stake beginning November 15 as he tries for five straight wins against the next best seven players in the round-robin group, a potential semifinal and final. It shouldn’t be easy, but then again, the 28-year-old Serbian has turned the ATP into his personal victory tour.

Djokovic might not get pushed by his fellow stars, but he will be very motivated to push himself higher on the immortal pantheon of legendary accomplishments.

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NOVAK DJOKOVIC All of the numbers ahead of the #ATPWorldTourFinals >> https://t.co/tM1nCXFVqC pic.twitter.com/gL1BObJT1j

— Live Tennis (@livetennis) November 11, 2015"

Greatest Season Ever?

It's always dicey to prove that any athlete is the greatest of all time, but it's more manageable to consider a smaller sample. It's quite possible that Djokovic could finish off the greatest season of all time. "Anti-Djokovics" or stat geeks can punch numbers and results until their computers burn out, but there's always a lot more context to sort through for each of the great periods.

For instance, a detractor might point out that 1960s legend Rod Laver compiled his two calendar Grand Slams (1962, 1969) at a time of primarily amateur tennis when wooden rackets and lightweight athletes competed against a more limited, regional pool of other Aussies, Western Europeans and underachieving Americans.

Or if we examine dominant seasons from Bjorn Borg (1978-80) or Pete Sampras (1993-95), and defend their legacies for how they overcame deeper fields of fellow superstars. Well, neither legend won three majors in a single year. It’s just not that easy to split hairs across tennis generations or decades.

In the past decade, supporters of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have made their cases for framing the exploits of their heroes. Federer posted the most impressive four-year run (2004-07) of title-winning tennis, and Nadal was even more dominant on his favorite clay surface. Federer was better on faster courts, but Nadal became an all-surfaces champion and still owns an enormous 23-11 head-to-head mark against Federer. Do you take Federer’s 2006 season or Nadal’s 2010 season? Federer in 2005 or Nadal in 2013? And so it goes.

How about a double dose of Djokovic? He stormed through 2011, winning three majors and then four of five majors through the 2012 Australian Open. But even Djokovic Version 2.0 might pale in comparison to uber-upgraded 2015 King Novak. He's transcended his own impressive past, and perhaps that of his two contemporary rivals Federer and Nadal.

Going behind the tennis stats, the following headline accomplishments can reverberate with any sports fan:

1. Three Major championships (Australian Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open) against increasingly deeper global competition. Plus the runner-up plate at the French Open.
2. Six Masters 1000 titles (For comparison, Federer’s 2006 netted only four of these titles, and Nadal’s best was five Masters 1000 titles in 2013; Djokovic also bagged five in 2011).
3. Fourteen consecutive tournaments appearing in the final since losing in Doha back in early January. He’s 11-3 in those finals, losing only at Roland Garros, Montreal and Cincinnati. Even by May, we were already measuring his chances at history. 
4. He will be the No. 1 player every day in 2015, and there’s no end in sight. His domination is stamped on every surface from slow hard courts, clay, Wimbledon’s grass, U.S. Open hard courts and the indoors season. 
5. How about winning 29 consecutive sets from the U.S. Open final to Paris’ semifinals last weekend? He completely destroyed the Far East tour, and he has not lost one of his 22 matches within the last three months. (Side note: The lost set to Stan Wawrinka was so surprising it was as if Djokovic had to wash it all away by immediately posting a 6-0 bagel. It was like he was apologizing to all of Serbia and wanted to atone for this grievous sin with nothing less than shutout.)

Here’s the punchline: If King Novak wins the WTF finals, his 2015 season will take a back seat to nobody. It will be on the short list up there with any of the legends’ best seasons, and Djokovic fans will have every right to call it the best ever. If he does not win the WTF finals, it is still one of the very best, but the debate would be murkier.

So that’s the biggest stake of all in trying to win four straight year-end titles and five overall.

King Novak’s Reign of Terror

The scary part of King Novak’s reign is that it’s speeding up, not slowing down. He’s far and away the No. 1 player. He’s ultra skilled, extremely fit and motivated to keep his edge. He hungers to win as if he is a young, breakout challenger. “I try to take nothing for granted,” Djokovic said in ATP World Tour. “I try to work on my game all the time, because I know that the only way I can stay successful is to continue progressing. I'm not trying to keep the status quo, because for me, that's a regression.”

Competitive fire is only the beginning. King Novak is to deny them hope the way he denies them sets. He seems aware that winning the WTF crown is only one of many future conquests for the streak he has accumulated. Will anybody truly believe he can defeat Djokovic at Melbourne?

Winning the WTF means expanding his empire and not letting in the Huns or the Goths. He does not want anyone pounding cracks into his foundation. This is one of those rare athletic streaks that sports fans will remember decades for now, and it will be a measuring stick.

Every set and match Djokovic plays is another piece of history. Every win is another layer to his dominant legacy, a period rarely, if ever, matched. With all of the talk about who was going to break up the Big Three and Andy Murray, the answer has been revealed.

There is King Novak, and there is everyone else.