Another Day of Some Big-Time Tennis In London

Written by: Staff on 21st November 2011

Another Day of Some Big-Time Tennis In London

Serbia's Novak Djokovic makes a return to Thomas Berdych of the Czech Republic during their Group A tennis match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals held in the O2 Arena, London, England, 21 November 2011. EPA/FOTOSPORTS/ROGER PARKER |

All eight singles players have played and one unlikely stats pops off the paper after two days at the ATP World Tour Finals: David Ferrer is the only player who hasn’t lost a set.

As unlikely as that is, one thing that many tennis fans predicted thus far has held true: The tennis has been fantastic with drama and suspense leaving the capacity paying London crowd going home happy customers each evening (save for their homegrown hero Andy Murray being the only player NOT to win a set).

Even the doubles play has been superb.

The late Novak Djokovic match should go down as an instant classic with it’s see-saw and back-and-forth high quality of play. The wounded (bum right shoulder) warrior Djokovic showed the same kind of guts and grind play where many in the States last saw him, fighting and clawing his way past Roger Federer to win tennis’ grand prize, the US Open.

On Monday night at the O2 Arena, Djokovic hit just three winners in the first set against Thomas Berdych, the burly Czech player who knew he would have his hands full against a player who had a career in just one year in 2011 at one point posting a 63-2 record before limping through the last two months.

But the Djoker battled back and even saved a match point (remember that, Roger) before pulling out the three-set match, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3).

Next up for tennis fans (begin salivating now): Federer vs. Nadal. We’ll see if Nadal got the rest he needed because he’ll need 100 percent effort to fend off the experienced Federer, who has got more things to prove this week than he has Grand Slam trophies.

It will be the 26th career meeting in one of tennis’ most storied rivalries but the first in round-robin. Many people forget Federer’s last win against Nadal came at the Barclays in the finals one year ago.

“It will be a challenge for me,” said Nadal yesterday. “He’s playing fantastic, winning two tournaments in a row, and now today. It will be a very difficult match. I will try.”

Federer was back on site on Monday for a special, on-court presentation as he was named the winner of the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award and ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favorite presented by RICOH in the 2011 ATP World Tour Awards.

Make no mistake, Federer was happy to receive more loot for the trophy case, but there’s only one more trophy in 2011 that he truly covets and we all know what that is.

Ferrer Pulls Off the Upset: Nobody is expecting much from David Ferrer this week, and that’s quite OK for the Spaniard who took out the hometown favorite world No. 3 Andy Murray on Monday, 6-4, 7-5, in two hours.

The fifth-seed David Ferrer, the 2007 runner-up, hit 19 winners and converted five of 10 break point opportunities to snap a five-match losing streak against Murray on hard courts. It was his 57th match win of the season (57-17).

“I’m very happy,” said Ferrer. “I beat Andy, in London, in his home. It is not easy. I played very consistent all the match. Maybe the first set I played better than the second, [because] in the second [set], sometimes I was a little bit nervous.

“I think it was important to start winning the match and if you win in two sets it is better with the group [standings]. You know you need to win one more match, because [it] is very difficult to reach the semi-finals winning only one match. I think this tournament is very, very special. It is very important.”

Murray Is a Game-Time Decision To Continue: Murray said he will make a decision tomorrow on whether to soldier on through the rest of this tournament, or to withdraw and give his spot to first alternate Janko Tipsarevic.

Murray, who was broken five times and let leads slip in both sets, will probably now need to beat world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and in-form Czech Tomas Berdych if he is reach the last four at the O2 Arena.

Murray’s first-serve percentage was 46%, he was only winning 57% of points behind his first serve and he made 44 unforced errors to just 21 winners.

Ho, Ho, Ho, NOT a Merry Time for Murray: From Kevin Mitchell, a columnist at The Guardian, who at one point compared Murray’s body language to that of “Robespierre being led to the guillotine”:

“If Andy Murray’s season really is over, he is not leaving us clutching our sides. Nobody does gloom quite like Murray. Cut down by a gluteal injury in Basel and inconvenienced in defeat on Monday by the flare-up of a groin strain picked up in training after his exit in Paris a week and a half ago, he views his chances of continuing in the ATP World Tour Finals this week with all the Christmas cheer of Ebenezer Scrooge.

“He may decide when he wakes up on Tuesday, he said. If not, he could leave it until a minute before his next scheduled match on Wednesday. Either way, he will not enter the O2 Arena in a red suit on a sled singing Jingle All The Way.”

May Be Time for a Re-Tweet: British boxer David Haye was in the crowd and tweeted that he was looking forward to seeing his friend Murray “Smash the Spaniard!”

Murray Confidence High Before the Match: What better way to warm-up for the world’s best than to take on two of them at the same time. That’s what Andy Murray did in a practice session with the both Bryan brothers.

Talk about confidence. “It’s a huge thing,” Murray said. “This is one of the biggest tournaments on the tour, so a win here would be a big achievement. Tennis is such a mental game. And when the confidence is there you feel like you can beat anyone.”

Henman on Murray: Four-time Wimbledon semifinalist writing for the BBC had this to say about Murray possibly someday winning a Grand Slam title:

“If he can generate a relentlessly optimistic approach to his game, not get frustrated and not lose his concentration, then his time will come.”

Tell Us What You Think: Some say the World Tour Finals are our sports version of the Super Bowl. Others may argue we have the four Grand Slams and that outweighs the WTF by far. Is it the Super Bowl? Or more like the Pro Bowl?

We know where Murray comes on out on the debate when he stated after his match that the world finals are right up there with he four Slams: “Just like in all the grand slams, I would always try and give it a go, for sure,” he said. “But if it wasn’t slams or this event, I wouldn’t have played.”

We ask 10sBalls.com readers: What do you think, are the World Tour Finals tennis’ version of the Super Bowl or Pro Bowl.

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