That’s it: the race is over. It has taken 10½ months to arrive at the result and it has involved around 75 matches each for the main contenders but finally, in the third round of the BNP Paribas Masters, the race for the ATP World Tour Finals has reached the finish line.
Bizarrely, it was Gael Monfils, a bloke not even in the running for a ticket to the O2 Arena in London, who brought matters to a head by beating Fernando Verdasco 6-7, 7-6, 7-5. That defeat meant that the Spaniard could not qualify for the Finals (he needed to reach the final in Paris to get to the Finals in London) and, in turn, it meant that no one could overtake Tomas Berdych, David Ferrer and Andy Roddick in 6th, 7th and 8th place respectively. So the line-up for the London extravaganza is: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Robin Soderling, Berdych, Ferrer and Roddick.
Verdasco was always on a hiding to nothing in Bercy. Not only was he playing Monfils – who, on his day, has the beating of almost anyone – but he was also taking on the 14,000 who trekked through the pouring rain to reach the Palais Omnisports.
This is a very different crowd from the well heeled and the well oiled who sashay around the grounds of Roland Garros. At the French Open, the crowd goes to see and been seen; in the east of the capital, in Bercy, the tennis faithful feel free to loosen their stays and have a bit of fun. And should a Frenchman happen to playing, heaven help his opponent; the Bercy bunch do not take any prisoners. So as Verdasco tried desperately to hang on to his ATP Finals dream, he found himself facing 14,001 patriotic and exuberant Frenchmen – and only one of them was carrying a racquet.
As if that were not terrifying enough, Verdasco could well be haunted for months by the thought that his year’s endeavours – 65 matches played, two titles won and $1.66 million in prize money accrued – rested on (and were wiped out by) two missed match points and a horrendous fluffed volley. That volley, a forehand effort with which he somehow managed to miss a wide-open court and, instead, find the net, cost him his serve in the penultimate game of the match and allowed Monfils to serve for victory. And in front of all those vociferous Parisians, the ebullient Gael was not going to make a mess of it.
Andy Roddick had done his bit towards qualifying by beating Ernests Gulbis 6-3, 7-6 in the morning. Knowing full well that he may have to rely on the results of others to reach the finals for the eighth year in a row, he wanted to make sure that he kept his end of the bargain by winning every match he could.
“I’m happy that I’ve won some matches and not so far relied on people losing,” he said. “That’s kind of the attitude I had coming into this week, and I think that’s what I’m going to go with as opposed to sitting around and hoping for people to lose.
“It’s certainly an accomplishment to qualify every year. I think it’s an honour to qualify once, and then each time I think you realise how tough it actually is. You can’t just play well for one week – it’s the culmination of doing it week after week on tour.”
Sadly for Verdasco, he had been ploughing through the year, consistently winning week by week, but it was all for nothing: 10½ months of work undone by three points of madness on a wet afternoon in Bercy.
Still, Verdasco’s loss is Roddick, Berdych and Ferrer’s gain – although the trio of London qualifiers might want to buy Monsieur Monfils a beer at the very least after he did them all such a favour on Thursday.
Topics: Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Atp World Tour, Bercy, Bit Of Fun, Bnp Paribas, Bnp Paribas Masters, David Ferrer, Fernando Verdasco, Finish Line, Fluf, Match Points, Novak Djokovic, Palais Omnisports, Pouring Rain, Rafael Nadal, Robin Soderling, Roger Federer, Roland Garros, Th Place, Tomas Berdych