World tour finals summary

Due to my internet connection failing me, I couldn’t write up a new post for the semi-final and final results so I thought I ‘d so a summary instead.

Singles

Semi finals

Davydenko def Federer 6-2 4-6 7-5

Del Potro def Soderling 6-7 6-3 7-6

Final

Davydenko def Del Potro 6-3 6-4

The tournament was deemed a success, until silly rumours about Fed tanking matches kinda ruined it from a British point of view, Muggins should have got himself to wikipedia to find out how the system works, I mean surely he knew which standing he was and that 3 people with a 2-1 win/loss record can’t possibly go through to the semis, the system is similar to the WTA’s system, standings are determined by match win/loss, then set win-loss then game win-loss and then head to head if there is a tie.

Bad tournament for Spaniards, although Nando didn’t win a match, he did better than the spanish number 1 for once, managing to lose in 3 sets, there was not even a set point for Rafa, indoors was never his forte anyway. Nando will need to go back to the drawing board as his mental issues haven’t really been cured, he should have beaten all 3 of his opponents, there were many oppurtunities.  

Del Potro showed that he was the real deal and that he only plays really well against Federer, in my opinion his best match was against Federer, the rest were bit “meh”.

Federer entered WTF with a 2 match losing streak and leaves with a 2 match losing streak.

Soderling proved that the french open wasn’t a fluke and finally beat Djokovic who looked like someone who’s been in 18+ quarterfinals or better this year. Also made sure that Roddick’s withdrawal wasn’t a wasted oppurtunity and put up a good showing in the round robin winning 5 out of 7 sets played but nerves got ther better of him in the semi final that he should have won, I believe Soderling changed his game plan when he broke Del Potro in the third set and nerves got the better of him in the tie-break, well there is always next year.

Davydenko finally delivered, a title that has been waiting for him for a long time is finally his, but he needs some hair and a “personality” before he can be the next Marat Safin. Will he win a major? It’s not impossible but like Davy has said himself he can play well in the final (finals win/loss career record is 19-5) but not necessarily during the whole tournament and that is the problem, he can beat Murray, he can slug it out with Djoko, he has Nadal’s number on a hardcourt and he has finally beaten Federer but best of five match against any of these in the quaterfinals or semi-finals, its a tough ask but not impossible.

The tournament was often advertised as being the decider but there wasn’t really anything being decided.

Many people struggle to do maths, surely this tournament has proved that education needs a re-think if so many were needed to work out how many games Federer to win to get himself and Muggins to the semi-finals.

Federer finshed the year as number 1 for the 5th time and is the second player after Lendl to lose then regain the year end number 1 and it proved that Federbear didn’t really care much for winning mathes after that, maybe the ATP  should think about telling the players when the tournament is over.

Frustrated Federer doesn’t win mathes, agaiunst Del Potro and Kolya he was frustrated at various times during the match and didn’t win either of them. 13 is also unlucky for Federer, Soderling is suddenly feeling very exciting about playing Roger in the near future.  

Doubles

Semi finals

Bryan Brothers def Bhupathi/Knowles 6-4 6-4

Mirnyi/Ram def Cermak/Mertinak 6-4 7-6 (4)

Final Bryan Brothers def Miryni/Ram 7-6(5) 6-3

They finally got the exposure they needed, there was everything from amazing shots, to body hits, grudges, cheating and reluctant handshakes.

Nestor/Zimonjic despite winning 9 titles this year found themselves ending the year ranked #2 as they struggled to find form in the tournament and managed to win only one match (their final match) once it was certain they wouldn’t advance past the round robin stage.

Dlohuy/Paes also never really turned up to the tournament, all matches were way below par and showed only a glimmer of their true selves during the tournament.

Bryan Brothers won their second world tour finals trophy together and finished the year as the number 1 doubles team.

World tour finals: Semi finalists revealed.

Federer vs Davydenko

Del Potro vs Soderling

As you can see Federer is the only player in the top 4 to qualify for the semi-finals, anyone who questions his ability to win the tournament is an idiot (<click to see Reed’s latest article starts good ends bad), since as I have low expectations for Roger (to make the losses easier), I am very happy that he’s made the semis but he doesn’t need to lose more than 12 matches in a year, right?.

By the looks of it Federer is gonna get his ass kicked revenge on Del Potro in the final, unless Davydenko makes it 13th time lucky against Roger which I wouldn’t be surprised if he did (could be because I’ve never seen them play each other so I have no idea why Davy finds Rog unbeatable) , however looking at Roger’s past semi-finals results he usually steam rolls his opponent, he had one loss which was to Hewitt in 2002 in 3 sets. Fed and Davy will be playing in the day session so Davy has about 12 hours to recover from his last match, not that it matters to him anyway. I would have liked Djokovic to have got through so that Federer could get revenge on Djoko whilst he’s exhausted but Davy had other ideas, there was not one patchy area of play today, Davydenko remained solid throughout. Soderling had a chance in the tie-break as he was up a mini-break but couldn’t conjure up a good serve and lost 4 points in a row, the good thing he’s still finished top of the group so at least he’s playing someone he’s beaten before however, Robindid take a rather nasty looking fall, he didn’t seem to be affected by it, in fact he played better afterwards and won the second set but he landed on his previously injured elbow and knee, it will leave a bruise. If Robin can get past Del Potro then he deserves to win the tournament, Del Potro has looked great after that poor match against Murray and there is no denying it Del Potro has looked better than Federer on the whole of course Fed is much more interesting to watch.

Djoko def Nadal 7-6(5)  6-3

If I had to sum up this match is three words it would be-boring error fest. What Djokovic did was shoot a dead dog, it started off like a WTA match with no one holdng serve, then Djoko finally managed to hold serve after breaking serve with some truly pathetic serves, just on par with Murray’s serve, then a loose game full with errors gave the break back and Nadal held serve easily, it looked like Nadal was gonna win a set, however he didn’t, they went to a tie-break, Djokovic who was pretty much dead missed 2 set points before a loose forehand error from Nadal gave the decisive break. Djoko broke Nadal’s serve in the second set and was on the verge of having a double break but Nadal who played a little better in the second held on before Djoko serve for the match, Nadal managed to get a break point before Djokovic used the last ounces of energy he had to convert his 2nd match point. 

Doubles semi-finalis

Bryan Brothers vs Bhupathi/Knowles – The Bryan Brothers need to win the tournament to end the year as number 1, they look better and better in each match, especially Bob, his serving has been great.

Cermak/Mertinak vs Mirnyi/Ram

I think it will be Bryans Brothers vs Mirnyi/Ram in the final. Do it for the daddys Max!

Do we really want a Roger DelBunny final? Really?

World tour finals: OMFG (Hope you like caps)

WHY DID YOU HAVE TO LOSE YOU *insert swear word* I HATE YOU DEL PEANUT AND ROGER, GO TO HELL BOTH OF YOU. I LOVE ROBIN 1,000,000,000,000 MORE THAN I DO YOU ROGER! IF YOU DON’T WIN THE TOURNAMENT I’LL CHANGE MY BLOG TITLE AGAIN PERMAnENTLY. WHAT’S WITH THOSE ERRORS AND PATHETIC SERVES, YOU’RE NOT MUGGINS. THIS IS DEL POTRO NOT VERDASCO THE IMPLODER OR MUGGINS THE FUGLY RETRIEVER TACTICIAN WITH THE SHIT SECOND SERVE, THIS DEL POTRO,  YOUR POSSIBLE REPLACEMENT FOR GOAT TITLE IN THE FUTURE, DON’T TO LOSE TO HIM 3 TIMES IN A ROW YOU’RE NOT NADAL YOU KNOW, AND NEVER GIVE ME HOPE AGAIN, I DON’T NEED YOUR FALSE COMEBACKS, I BET YOU WISH YOU NEVER BAGELED HIM NOW, IF YOU’RE GONNA CREATE YOUR OWN MONSTER AT LEAST KEEP IT IN IT’S A CAGE.

Del Peanut Butter def, Federer 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3

Ok now that I’ve got that little bit of childishness out of my system, I’ll start my post. (by the way that was a summary of Roger’s match.) No, Ill be serious, Del Peanut Butter played the best match of this tournament and Roger didn’t but, Roger had many chances to force break point or make 0-30 but he didn’t and again he paid the price for his dismal first serve percentage and for not punishing Del Potro for his also pathetic first serve percentage, which was lower than Federer’s. Like against Murray the key for Roger beating Del Potro now is the high first serve percentage and the first serve, he needs as many on-two punches as he can get to hold serve easier and he needs to use the slice return more and try to get it angled and really low at the same time, he also needs to add length to his ball and try and hit into the corners of the courts to keep Del Potro at bay and out of his hitting zone, he also needs to use the drop shot purely to move Del Potro around and keep him guessing, when Del Potro tightens up his serve and serves faster you know he’s getting tired and Federer will need to make a long points by using the deep slice to prevent Del Potro from wailing on the ball.

If Federer had won just one more game then Murray would be through but Del Potro is and Federer is group leader by four games, talk about cutting it fine. Del Potro can also make some ground on Murray’s number 4 ranking, if Murray had lost to Verdasco and if Del Potro won the tournament then he’d end the year as number 4 but even if he does win he’ll be 130 points behing Murray.  I think Del Potro and Muggins will swap places soon enough.

The bright side of Roger’s loss is that I don’t have to listen to the BBC’s biased commentators on semi finals day, in fact i wonder if they are even going to show it now that Murray isn’t in it anymore, they actually managed not to show quite possibly the match of the tournament-the Murray vs Federer match- which I find disappointing as think those without digital TV should have watched Murray get beat by Federer, as the only tennis the BBC shows is Wimbledon and the British Davis cup ties, so the chances are they’ll never get to see Fed thrash the “true number 1″.

Del Potro might get the Simon Reed jinx treatment soon if he keeps beating Roger, just wait for it, there will be Murray true number 1 because he beats Del Potro and Del Potro the true number 2 and future of tennis blah, blah,blah…Simon please don’t kill more talent all Del Pony wanted was to make the semis.

By the way if Robin beats Del Potro, I might die…probabaly of laughter then of despair and if that does happen and Roger somehow makes it past Kolya or Nole then I’m rooting for Soderlng, I just love his reactions when he wins and he deserves at least one win, he’s done so much and nearly got grand slammed by Federer (lost to Federer in 3/4 slams).I’m serious, I need to reach Federer fan zen, now excuse me, I need vodka and cookie dough ice cream.

Roger Federer, ATP World Tour Champion 2009!

Yes Roger you look great with that 1 trophy.

 

ATP Videos on the great champion.

 

Federer uncovered

What Roger has done is amazing, I don’t think anyone can ever write him off again, he and Lendl are the only players to regain the year-end number 1 ranking after losing it. When Lendl regained the number 1 ranking he managed to hold onto it for 80 weeks, that’s just over a year and a half, it would something if Roger could continuously hold for it more than 80 weeks, he should be able to, he’s had a so-so beginning of the year, a great summer, a good american hard court season, didn’t participate in the asian swing and a poor(by his lofty standards) indoors season, so he should be able to grab a lot of points after the US open next year. It would be even better if Federer held onto the number 1 spot for a whole year and equals Sampras.

World tour finals:OMG Nando.

I’m glad I’m not  a fan of FeVer because I would be tearing my brains out now. In the first set there were so many second serves there to be punished and the amount of errors from FeVer was well, bad, the match should be labled like many others this as so near yet so far, he make Muggins look good though  (well the BBC thought so). Well Muzza somehow got through that match against Nando and will await news of whether he’s in the semis or not, it’s all up to Roger. If he loses in straight sets, then he’s definitely out, if he loses in 3 sets, then he, Del Potro and Murray will have the same set win-loss and it will come down to games, so he’d better make Del Pony part of the breadstick club or even better become the first player in group A to win in straight sets. There is no doubt that Del Pony will be playing well so it is vital that Federer’s serve is working from the beginning of the match, it was his crappy serve that contributed him to handing losing the US open title to Del Potro. So it’s better be working or I swear I’m gonna turn into a Muggins “the true number 1″ fan :p.

I’m going to hide now and hope Roger wins, sorry Del Peanut butter but you cannot beat Muggins or Djokovic.  

PICK A WINNER!

world tour finals:Go Bobby Sod and Kolya!

Soderling def Djokovic 7-6(5) 6-1

Soderling became the first man through to the sem finals as he beat a tired Djokovic who gave up mentally in the second set. Soderling started off very nervously and it was Djokovic who got the early break point chances but Soderling’s killer serve flew into action and saved him from going a break down. Holding serve was relatively easy for both players until Djokovic found him 0-40 at 4-5, a missed backhand and a few good serves got him out of trouble and it was 5-5. Soderling looked as if he may crack after he fluffed up game point, it looked af if Djoko would spring into life and force break point but Soderling maintained his level of play, used a few big serves to get himself out of trouble but was pegged back to deuce again after a couple of nightmarish volleys. Both held serve to force a tie-break where Soderling but his stamp on the match, after swapping mini breaks twice, a nice volley from Soderling make a decisive mini break and he took the tie break 7-5. Djokovic held serve but then Soderling took a leaf out of Roger’s book and won 6 games in a row, he took his second match point after a tired Djokovic messed up a volley. (Roger won 6 games in a row aagainst Murray) Soderling really deserved the win, I thought he would have the won their last match in Paris but it looked nerves took a hold of him and made him error prone. He will now play Davydenko next and if he plays and serves as well as he did gainst Djoko then I’d pick him to win. Djoko must beat Nadal to advance to the semis and hope that Soderling beats Davydenko. If Soderling does beat Davydenko he will do the  exact opposite of what his coach Magnus Norman did, he will go 3-0 in round robin wins unlike Norman who went 0-3.

Davydenko def Nadal 6-1 7-6(4)

Davydenko evened up his head to head against Nadal and gave him a breadstick as a souvenir. Davydenko was really throwing in the angles, hanging in the rallies and coming up with some amazing shots, tried his best to choke away the match in the second and Rafa perked up a bit in the second he may some good returns but in the end Davy stopped choking, ended the match and Nadal’s hope of making the semis. (Geez, Rafa if I knew you were going to play like that I wouldn’t have bothered frazzling about you ending the year as number 1) I don’t know what to say about Nadal, I think he needs some clay urgently, unlike others I will not predict his future, tennis is too unpredictable to do that.

Group B scenarios for semifinals.

Davy beats The Sod in straights sets=bye bye Djokovic (doesn’t matter in Djoko wins in straight sets)

Djoko beats Nadal in straight sets  and The Sod beats Davy= bye bye Davy

Nadal beats Djoko straight sets and  The Sod beats Davy in straight sets = bye bye Djoko

Djoko beats Nadal in 3 sets and The Sod beats Davy in 3 sets=? It will be decided by who has won the higher percentage of games and there is a tie Djokovic will go through because he leads the head to head against Davydenko

Sorry Rafa but you must let Djoko beat you, Fed needs a rematch.

I really hope Federer wins the title in London its’ the perfect place to get revenge on all the youngsters and as I’ve said in other posts, he needs to build up a lead over the others, while I still believe that he can win the Australian open and the French open, many do not believe that he can win the latter, it’s not impossible to beat Nadal on clay, he needs to find a way to surprise Nadal on clay or grow another *3 inches one of the two.

*Soderling beat Rafa at the French open and is 6′4 whilst Roger is 6′1.

Doubles results

Kubot/Marach def. Mirnyi/Ram 4-6 6-4 16-14 (they saved 3 match points in the match tie break)

Bryan Brothers def  Dlouhy/Paes 6-3 6-4

world tour finals: Well this sucks.

First of all bring out the champagne, Federer has become only the second player regain the year-end number 1 after losing it. However, he is not guaranteed to move on into the semi-finals, if he loses to Del Potro he is going to have to hope that Verdasco beats Murray (won’t happen unless Muzza has nightmares about playing Fed again and tanks the match). Please Nando, it’s Bobby Sod’s first time and he won in straight sets at least end the year with two top ten wins to justify your place Nando, sheesh.

Federer def Murray 3-6, 6-3, 6-1,

Well, I always had faith in Roger *nose begins to grow longer*. Ok, I admit it, I didn’t think Roger would win especially after the first 5 minutes, even when he had match point I still thought he was gonna go all “Tsonga Montreal match” on us and lose a 5-1 lead. In the first set the serve was poop, the forehand was poop and the backhand was poop. After Federer went down 2-5 after missing 2 break back chances at 2-4, I was called by my sister to do a spot of hairdressing which I gladly agreed to do as Federror isn’t the guy I want to watch however, I missed the Federer that hits forehands which make you orgasm. Fed would it kill ya to play well from the start of the match? In the second set Federer started playing like Federer and continuously put pressure on Murray’s serve until he finally broke serve. Murray clung onto his opening service game and then Federer won 6 games in a row. Murray had 3 gp points at 1-5 but choked them all away, Federer messed up on two match points but a great return on the third was too much for Murray to handle and he dumped a backhand into the net. The Murray fans were not happy and of course the Federer fans were elated, the first part of Federer’s prediction has come true, if they both win their next match then there is every chance than they may meet in the finals and I’m sure Federer would relish to the chance of beating Murray for a second time in London but I think he’d also settle for beating the defending champion Djokovic (if he gets through) and if Djokovic makes the final unbeaten then I’m sure Federer would also relish ending the Serb’s winning streak.  

Match highlights

Murray blamed his loss on his serve, he served 9 aces but 8 double faults, to be honest he didn’t play exceptionally well in the first set, I think he was slightly overwhelmed by the atmosphere, we Brits have been waiting for this match since July. Maybe Roger wasn’t reading Murray’s serve well in the first set or maybe Murray was a bit tense or maybe Murray was truly just having a bad serving day or it could be subconscious, maybe he felt that he needed to put more on the serve to prevent Roger from hitting a zinging return on his second serve and also because he couldn’t win points off Roger first serve. Murray served an equal number of aces in the first and second set and only one in the third. According to the sky sports commentators, whoever had the higher first serve percentage won the match in their past meetings, since as Roger’s serve only really returned in the summer, we should expect more wins from Rog in the future, I think he’ll be able do what he’s done to Nalbandian and Hewitt in the past and turn his head to head with Murray on its head, I don’t think it will be as extreme as with Hewitt (15 wins in a row from 2-7 down) and the two have yet to meet on a court other than hard court or indoor carpet, I think that may change next year.  Its seem like aggressiveness and a high serve percentage is the key to beating Murray.

As I said at the beginning of this post Federer isn’t guaranteed a place in the semis yet. For Federer and Murray to get through  they have to beat their opponents, for Federer and Verdasco to get through, Federer and Verdasco must win must in straight sets. If Federer loses in 3 and Verdasco wins in 3, Federer and Del Potro will get through but Del Potro will be group leader. There is a way for there to be a 3 way tie in which it will come down to number of games won, if all three players have won the same percentage of  games and then the two semi finalists will be decided by the players’ head to heads against each other (apparently) Murray leads all of them so he’ll go through and Federer leads Del Potro, So Murray would be group winner and Federer would go through ( most likely end up playing Djokovic unless Soderling makes it 6th time lucky beats Djoko and continues his domination over Davydenko.) Like Serena in Doha, I hope Roger goes 3-0 in the round robin, he needs to put some space between him and the rest of field it’s getting too crowded. Also just 29 more weeks at number 1 (if i can add correctly) and Roger will have overhauled Pete.

I have hope that dominating third set Roger will turn up for the whole match and beat Del Potro who very unconvincingly served out his match with Verdasco, I know the match went to a tie-break but Del Potro’s first match point in the tie-break was on his serve which for the whole match had been devastating but was rather tame in the latter stages of the match, I hate to be a sore loser but Verdasco did throw away that tie-break. Did Del Potro even hit a winner in the tie-break? Certainly no more than one. He’ll play better against Roger though now that he’s got a win under his belt, so Roger needs to cut down on errors, he hit 31 winners to 30 unforced errors yesterday, he won’t get away with only winning 38% of second serves or the break point conversion 5/13 but the first serve percentage was great in the second and third sets against Murray, he only dropped one point on his first serve in the second set. In the third, he lost two points on his first serve but made all first serves apart from two.  

This really would suck if Federer didn’t make the semis, Federer would have already made the semis if he had won one of his matches in straight sets as there would be a 3 set difference it just wouldn’t be clear whether he would finish 1st or 2nd out of the group (I think I’m right in saying that let me know if I’m wrong). I think Rog should make a statement and win his next match in straight sets but no bagels, Del Potro doesn’t like them. Federer is playing the night match again , it’s a good job that Federer is in group A so he’ll have a day’s rest, we’ll also be able to know what Federer’s fate is as Murray and Verdasco are playing first.  Verdasco seems to be playing a bit better so maybe the Verdasco forehand, backhand, serve and brain will turn up for the whole of the match instead of 3 all second set 0-30.

Doubles

Sorry I jinxed Nestor/Zimonjic, they lost to Cermak/Mertinak 6-3 6-4, they’ll simply be playing for pride on Thursday, they can’t progress past the round robin stage..

Bhupathi/Knowles def Fyrstenberg/Matkowski 3-6 6-3 10-7

Didn’t watch either match so I can’t comment.

world tour finals 2009: Verdasco implodes again!

I was hoping that my jinxing skills would help Verdasco to victory but unfortunately they didn’t, well done to Del Potro he deserved the win, however he could now be the player to send Federer home and possibly down the rankings to number 2 if Nadal somehow herein wins the tournament undefeated.

Del Potro played more like himself today, big serves,  big groundstrokes, forehand and backhand both in working order and was striking the ball very clearly and very hard. The whole of Verdasco’s game turned up in the second set at 3-3 0-30, the backhand turned up and put Del Potro in a lot of trouble for the next two games, Verdasco broke Del Potro’s serve and served out the set to love. In the third set after 5 games, Verdasco answered the question that everyone had in their heads. Can he keep up this level of play? Answer? No. Soon he was 0-40 and after saving  2 break points, in typical Verdasco style he started painting the lines and inevitably one of his shots drifted out. Del Potro  held serve and Verdasco was forced to serve to stay in the match, he saved one match point with a great backhand passing shot but Del Potro’s approach wasn’t the best of  approach shots and he was punished appropriately for it. Del Potro failed to serve out the match and the momentum changed, Verdasco raced into a 40-0 lead and double faulted then Del Potro looked like Del Potro again. It’s amazing when players are down and when their opponent loses a point because of an unforced errors then all of a sudden they perk up again. If Verdasco hadn’t served that double then maybe, Del Potro wouldn’t have been so energetic in the next game, all well, we’ll never know. Verdasco then held serve after saving another match point to force a tie-break in which he imploded and won only one point and lost the match with an unforced forehand error.

From Verdasco’s point of view, his chance of getting to the semis remains in the hands of Federer, Federer must beat Murray and Verdasco must beat Murray on Thursday. From Federer’s point of view Verdasco’s loss could contribute to him not making it to the semis either, confidence is a wonderful thing to have a tennis, when you have confidence, you hit freely, you tend not to over think things and your game comes natural to you, Del Potro is going to be confident now, he’s won two matches now since the US open coming into London he had only won one (I’m not counting Gonzalez’s retirement). The way Del Potro played today I can see him beating Roger. So for Federer, he must beat Murray, a straight sets win would be nice wouldn’t mind if it was 3 it would prove my Federer can’t beat Murray in 3 sets theory and we can’t have Federer being sent home by a 21-year-old two years in a row. I hope Federer is a revenge player and kicks DelPoop’s ass (sorry Del Poop, I like you but maybe next year) 

Also to Verdasco’s defence, he’s has a long-term foot injury that requires surgery (Peter Fleming’s word) which he’s putting off until after the Davis cup final. So he tried his best but again for the 12th time this year he’s come off second best against a top ten player.

Robin I love you more than Federer

The Sod was rather happy to beat Nadal again…

I’m not sure many would have predicted Soderling to be leading the group but he is as he is the only player to win in straight sets, everyone else did it the hard the way. Credit to the Sod for beating Nadal in straight sets (6-4,6-4)  he was tested mentally and it wasn’t the nicest of match-ups for your first ever match at the world tour finals (I’m sure he would preferred to play Davydenko as he’s beaten him 5 out of 6 times this year). Rafa threw in some loose errors in the match and didn’t put much pressure on Soderling when Soderling was clearly struggling, Rafa was lacking in confidence is surely is even more so now, Davydenko is his next opponent and to be honest, I’d say Rafa is already out, Soderling and Davydenko were the realistically beatable players in his group, even if he beats Davydenko he isn’t beating Djokovic unless something bizarre happens, he’s going to have to rely on others to get him through .

Soderling, is the complete opposite of Verdasco, yes it was slightly different circumstances as Verdasco had never taken a set off Federer as well as being a first timer but Soderling even though he was nervous, he had a game plan and tried his best to stick with it, serving first also helped him a ton as he didn’t have to serve out either set. Like Verdasco he also bungled a smash at game point, usually when this happens a player like Nadal would then get the better of a player like Soderling and it would be game over but Soderling shrugged it off and then fired down an ace afterwards. Soderling didn’t bring his A game, he can play much better, when he’s in the zone, aces and winners just fly off his racquet, everything just comes natural to him but he was a bit tense, hopefully this win over the world number 2 will make him more confident about playing his next opponent the world number 3, I hope that Soderling can beat Djokovic and then Davydenko (yeah, I’m greedy), I hope I’m not too wrong in saying that it will give him a chance of finishing the year ranked 8 providing that Verdasco only wins one match or if Verdasco doesn’t win a match and Soderling wins 2 or 3. (correct me if I’m wrong)

Djokovic stumbles over the finish line to beat Davydenko and annoys me. Davydenko’s string of errors in the second half of the second set and the third set cost him the match and has also ruined my ideas of a dream tournament, My dream tournament would be Davydenko and Soderling as the group B semi finalists with Soderling ranked 1 and Davydenko ranked two. The group A semi finalists would be Roger and Muzz, with Roger ranked 1 and Muzz ranked 2. Soderling would pummel Muzz into another dimension and leave the British crowd in stunned silence and Simon Reed in tears. Federer would then play his best tennis in the delight that a long time member of Federer’s toy club has come to be a part of Federer’s fun house/masterclass and would beat Davy in straight sets. In the final Roger beats Soderling in 3 sets, with the Sod yoking that it will be 14th time lucky.

Yes anyway back to Djokovic and Davydenko, it was a very clean (well for nearly two sets) entertaining match, the best match of the tournament so far. Both started off very strongly but it was Dvaydenko who took the initiative and broke twice to win the first set 6-3, then Djokvic had several break point chances and missed then until Davydenko managed to string a few errors together and Djokovic broken in the 9th game to serve for the set. I don’t know what was up with Davydenko in the third set, I was expecting him to perk up and take the match but he didn’t, he had many break point chances and missed them, some of them were on second serves and I thought with someone like Davydenko who is such a good returner, he would make something of it but he didn’t. When Djokovic was serving for the match he was broken by Davydenko again, who had been worn down by Djokovic but since as he needed only two more game to win the match, I though he’d summon up some energy (like he did in Shanghai and played great in the latter stages of the third set) hold serve  so that Djokovic would have to serve to stay in the match after serving for it, mentally it would have been a struggle for Djokovic but he didn’t and lost his serve to love and Djokovic served for it again with ease.

Doubles

Bryan Brothers like Nestor/Zimonjic were victims of an upset, this time at the hands of Mirnyi/Ram who won 6-4, 6-4. The Bryan brothers still have a chance to end the year as number 1 but to have a chance of overtaking Nestor/zimonjic they need to win their next two matches.

Kubot/Marach the sixth seeds upset the 4th seeds Dlouhy/Paes in more ways than one. The score was 6-4 7-6, Kubot was the only player to hold serve until the tie-break, where he lost one point on his serve. If both teams get to the finals I expect a grudge match as Marach was accused of lying about the ball touching his shorts, the point should have gone to Dlouhy/Paes but went to Kubot/Marach as the ball landed went out and the umpire did not see the ball touching Marach’ shorts which in my opinion clearly did. Paes then took a ball in the neck courtesy of Kubot who then took a hit on the leg from Dlouhy a few points later. The handshake at the end of the match wasn’t too bad, Paes just wanted to get out of there, shook their hands quickly and walked making little eye contact whilst, Dlouhy was a little bit more sportsman like. 

Tomorrow, Federer plays Murray, I think I’ll just look at a scoreboard and scream abuse at it whenever Murray wins a point. On the brightside Federer has already had the customary bad match of the tournament, so it’s Murray turn now, right?

Federer makes the great escape

How did I ever doubt Roger and Fernando? It was obvious that Roger was going to win but the manner that he did was surprising/ unsurprising.

Suprising because….

-I didn’t think he was going to be in spectacular form but the amount and type of errors in the first set was shocking, Federer did well to avoid going down a double break. In the round robin format as games are very important, they can decide who gets 2nd  or 3rd place.

- Verdasco  took it to Roger, he had a game plan an executed it for about a set and a half. Regardless of the way Roger played, Verdasco deserved the first set.

- Roger forgetting what a forehand was for the first set and the beginning of the second was also surprising, both Roger’s backhand and forehands are great shots to look at but just backhands against a lefty…bad idea, I’m surprised Verdasco didn’t punish him more for that.  

Unsurprising because…

-Verdasco being Verdasco would doubt himself after losing the second set and decided that he couldn’t win and fell apart. Verdasco’s implosion means that Federer leads the group by two games.

-Federer tightened up his game in the second set and tried to make half chances for himself which eventually paid dividens in the 11th game of the second set.

-Federer continued to play well in the third even though it was anything but competitive.

Federer will have to play better to beat Murray and Del Potro and he needs to not only to seal the year end number 1 ranking but to also put some distance between him and the rest of the field, he’s got a lot of points to defend in the summer and if he finishes strongly and picks up the Australian open title then it’ll put him in the right direction to breaking Sampras’ record for weeks at number 1 which I’m sure will be a target once Federer seals the year-end number 1 ranking.

Verdasco plays Del Potro next, the two have never played before, it’s a must win match for both if they want to get through to the semis, more so for Verdasco as I can’t see him giving Murray much of a problem. Even if Verdasco were to lose to Del Potro (which I think he will) he could still get to the semis if results go his way, he would have to beat to Murray and Federer would have to win all 3 matches, it would be vice versa for Del Potro. 

I think Roger  really needs to beat Muzz to avoid the “do or die” match, when he’s a bit more relaxed and when he can enjoy himself, he plays much better. I do think Roger will win, he knows what he needs to do, he just needs to keep doing it and maintain his intensity. After Roger’s poor(ish) display, I think he’ll play better, he’s got through a tough match, so he should play better in his next. Again he’s playing a night match, I hope he finishes Muzz in two sets, as I need my sleep.

I didn’t watch much of the Muzz/Del Poop match, from what I saw Del Potro wasn’t playing consistently and backed down when after he won the second set and Murray took control of the match. Murray was floating a few balls to Del Potro’s forehand during the second set which Del Potro punished. He didn’t show any signs of injury but he still isn’t at his best.   

Doubles

Defending champs Nestor/Zimonjic were stunned by polish team Fyrstenberg and Matkowski in straight sets 6-4 6-4. The polish pair just outplayed the defending champs who were somtimes in two minds about what to do, they didn’t change their tactics much when they were losing but the polish team were very strong.

Bhupathi/Knowles also won, they beat Cermak/Mertinak in straight sets 6-3, 6-3. I didn’t watch much of the match as I needed to calm myself  before Roger’s match, from what I saw Bhupathi/Knowles outplayed Cermak/Mertinak.

Here’s a few group pictures, I find Del Potro in a suit amusing, most likely because of his height. Click to enlarge.