8 players to have successfully defended their ATP Finals title

The ATP Finals is the crown-jewel of the ATP calendar, pitting the season's best eight players in a round-robin format followed by a semifinal and a final. The 2019 ATP Finals in London would be the 50th edition of the season-finale, which started in 1970 in Tokyo and has since been held in 12 other cities over the years.

23 different players have won the ATP Finals, with Roger Federer (6) leading a group of 9 players to have won the tournament twice.

In 48 previous editions of the tournament, barring the inaugural one in 1970, the defending champion returned to defend his title the next year on 39 occasions but was successful only 15 times. 2018 champion Sascha Zverev's appearance at the 2019 ATP Finals would mark the 40th occasion of the previous year's winner returning to defend his title.

Let us meet the select group of eight players in chronological order (last one first) to have successfully defended their title at the season-finale tournament.

#1 Novak Djokovic (Successfully defended titles in 2013-15)

Novak Djokovic is a five-time winner at the ATP Finals. Since his maiden triumph at the tournament in 2008, the Serb became the 9th and latest multiple time winner at the season-ending tournament when he beat two-time defending champion Roger Federer in straight sets in the 2012 final.

The Serb went undefeated in 2012, 2013 (beat Nadal in the final), and 2014 (had a walkover over Federer in the final) to become the first player since Ivan Lendl (1985-87) to win the ATP Finals three years in a row.

Djokovic returned to the ATP Finals in 2015 where his 15-match win streak ended at the hands of Roger Federer in the round-robin stage of the tournament. But he went on to beat the Swiss maestro in the final to become the first player to win 4 consecutive ATP Finals titles.

In the process, the Serb became the third player in tournament history to successfully defend his title on 3 occasions (2012-14).

#2 Roger Federer (Successfully defended titles in 2004, 2007, 2011)

Roger Federer lifts his record-6th ATP Finals title in 2011

Roger Federer has made the most appearances (17), played the most matches (72), won the most matches (57), made the most finals (10), has had the most number of perfect group-stage campaigns (10), and has won the most ATP Finals titles (6) in the tournament's history.

To add to his impressive resume at the tournament, Federer has successfully defended his title at the season-finale tournament on 3 occasions.

The Swiss maestro beat two-time champion Lleyton Hewitt in the 2004 final to successfully defend his title at the tournament for the first time in his career. Further successful defences followed in 2007 (beat David Ferrer in the final) and in 2011 (beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final).

#3 Lleyton Hewitt (Successfully defended his title once)

2001 champion Lleyton Hewitt returned to the 2002 ATP Finals (then called the Tennis Masters Cup) in Shanghai.

Hewitt qualified for the semifinals behind group-winner Carlos Moya, where he beat tournament debutant and future 6-time winner Roger Federer in straight sets to set up a title showdown with Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero.

The reigning US champion burst out of the blocks, taking a two-set lead, only for Ferrero to fight back and force a fifth. Hewitt regrouped to triumph 7-5 7-5 2-6 2-6 6-4 in the deciding set, to become the first player in five years to successfully defend his ATP Finals title.

#4 Pete Sampras (Successfully defended his title once)

Pete Sampras is one of only four players in ATP Finals history to have won the tournament on at least five occasions.

Following his first two triumphs at the tournament (then called the ATP World Tour Championships) in 1991 and 1994 in Frankfurt, Sampras failed to reach the final the following year on both occasions - before winning a third ATP Finals title in 1996 Hanover (beat Boris Becker in the final).

In the 1997 edition of the tournament, Sampras dropped a group-stage match against Carlos Moya but topped his group in a 3-way tie with Moya and Patrick Rafter, on account of most sets won.

The then 3-time Wimbledon champion beat Swede Jonas Bjorkman in the semis and Moya's semifinal conqueror Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the final to successfully defend his ATP Finals title for the first time. It was Sampras's eighth title of the year.

In the process, Sampras became the first four-time winner at the tournament since Ivan Lendl and Ilie Năstase.

#5 Ivan Lendl (Successfully defended his title 3 times)

Ivan Lendl became the first player in ATP Finals history to win 5 titles at the tournament with his triumph in the 1987 final over Sweden's Mats Wilander. Lendl is the only player in tournament history to have won the title at the same venue on most occasions (5), winning all his 5 titles in New York City.

After falling short against Björn Borg in the 1980 final on his tournament debut, Lendl beat Vitas Gerulaitis in the 1981 final to record his first title in the tournament.

The 1982 edition of the tournament, then called the Masters Grand Prix, saw a change in format, with the earlier 8-player round-robin format making way for a 12-player knockout round tournament. Lendl and three of the other top-4 seeds had first-round byes.

Lendl beat Yannick Noah in the quarterfinals, Jimmy Connors in the semis, and John McEnroe in the final, all in straight sets, to record his first successful title defence at the tournament in his very first attempt.

Following defeats in the 1983-1984 finals to McEnroe, Lendl beat that year's reigning Wimbledon champion, a 17-year-old Boris Becker in the final to win his 3rd title at the tournament. Further successes followed in 1986 (beat Becker in the final) and 1987 (beat Wilander in the final), as Lendl became the first player in tournament history to reach 9 consecutive finals and win 5 titles.

#6 John McEnroe (Successfully defended his title once)

John McEnroe became the youngest player (19 years old) and the only teenager to triumph at the ATP Finals when he beat Arthur Ashe in the 1978 final.

McEnroe's triumph marked the 4th time in 5 years a left-hander had won the season-finale tournament, following Guillermo Vilas (1974), Manuel Orantes (1976) and Jimmy Connors (1977).

In 1983, McEnroe dethroned two-time defending champion Ivan Lendl to record his second title at the tournament. The American returned the following year to defend his title, and in a repeat of the previous year's title match, beat Lendl to register his first successful title defence at the ATP Finals, then called the Masters Grand Prix.

#7 Björn Borg (Successfully defended his title once)

Björn Borg, the first player to capture 11 Grand Slam singles titles, is a two-time winner at the season-ending ATP Finals, then called the Masters Grand Prix.

In his 4th appearance at the ATP Finals in 1979 New York, two-time finalist Borg beat Vitas Gerulaitis in the final, for his first title at the tournament.

Borg returned the next year and beat Ivan Lendl in the 1980 final to record his first successful title defence at the ATP Finals.

#8 Ilie Năstase (Successfully defended his title 2 times)

Ilie Năstase became the first debutant to win the ATP Finals, then called the Masters Grand Prix, when he dethroned the tournament's first champion Stan Smith in the 1971 final in Paris.

In a repeat of the previous year's title match, Năstase beat Smith in the 1972 Barcelona final to become the first multiple-time winner at the season-finale tournament and also the first player to win his first 10 matches at the tournament.

The Romanian made it a three-peat in the Boston final in 1973 when he beat Tom Okker in the title match.

Argentinian Guillermo Vilas ended the title-winning streak of Năstase in the 1974 final in Melbourne, the only time the tournament was played outdoors and on grass.

Năstase returned for his final appearance at the ATP Finals in 1975 where he beat local boy Björn Borg in the Stockholm title match to become the tournament's first four-time winner and the first player to reach four consecutive finals, streaks which would last for more than a decade.

Who Are Roger Federer's Kids? Know All About Federer's Twins

Edited by Musab Abid