Novak Djokovic

Đoković began a successful year by winning in Adelaide, defeating Australian Chris Guccione in the final. At the 2007 Australian Open, he reached the fourth round, where he lost to eventual champion Roger Federer in straight sets.

In 2007, his performances in the Masters Series events at Indian Wells and Miami, where he was runner-up and champion respectively, pushed him well into the world's top ten. In those tournaments, which were his first and second Masters finals, he defeated fellow rising star Andy Murray in the semi finals without dropping a set in either match. He lost the Indian Wells final to Rafael Nadal, but avenged this defeat by beating Nadal in the Miami event, before defeating the resurgent Guillermo Cañas in the final (6-3, 6-2, 6-4). He later played in the prestigious Monte Carlo Open, only to be defeated by David Ferrer in his third round match in straight sets. He reached the quarterfinals of both Rome and Hamburg Masters, but lost to Carlos Moyà and Nadal, respectively. At the tournament in Estoril, Đoković defeated Frenchman Richard Gasquet 7-6, 0-6, 6-1, in the final.

At the French Open he reached his first Grand Slam semifinal ever, where he lost to eventual champion Rafael Nadal.

During the 2007 Wimbledon Championships, he won an epic match against Marcos Baghdatis in the quarter finals. The match ended 7-6(4), 7-6(9), 6-7(3), 4-6, 7-5 and lasted 5 hours, just 5 minutes shy of the longest singles match in a single day in Wimbledon history. In his semi-final match, he was forced to retire against Rafael Nadal due to a back injury and foot problem.

He garnered further success in the Masters Series, winning the 2007 Canada Masters. In the final he defeated top seeded Roger Federer 7-6(2), 2-6, 7-6(2). In reaching the championship, he achieved the remarkable feat of defeating the World Nos. 1, 2 and 3 (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick, respectively) on three consecutive days. This is the first time a player has accomplished this since Boris Becker in 1994. Moreover, Đoković became only the 2nd person, after Tomáš Berdych, to have defeated both Federer and Nadal since they became the dominant #1 and #2 players in the world. His successful performance made Björn Borg state that Đoković "is definitely a contender to win a Grand SlamHowever, Đoković's appearance the following week at the Cincinnati Masters, resulted disappointingly with a straight-set loss to Carlos Moyà in the 2nd round.

He nevertheless came to the 2007 US Open with a lot of confidence and expectation and reached the final where he lost to World no. 1 Roger Federer 7-6(4), 7-6(2), 6-4. On his way to the final, Đoković won an epic 5-set (6-7(4), 7-6(5), 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(2)) second round match against Radek Štěpánek after nearly 5 hours of play.

Đoković returned after a minor injury to Vienna, to beat Stanislas Wawrinka in the final 6-4, 6-0 and take his 5th title of the year. The win enables Đoković to gain closer on Rafael Nadal in the ATP Tour Rankings. Đoković's next tournament was the prestigous Madrid Masters, where he lost to David Nalbandian 6-4, 7-6(4) in the semi-finals, an improvement on the previous years finish.

Source: wikipedia.org