BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR UPDATE FROM LONDON BY GLOBAL CHICK

Written by: Global Chick on 13th November 2014

BARCLAYS ATP WORLD TOUR UPDATE FROM LONDON BY GLOBAL CHICK |

Excitement & Despair – Thursday’s round up:

Excitement and despair as Group B’s semi-finalists are Federer and Nishikori

Group B sorted out their semi-finalists on Thursday with Kei Nishikori and Roger Federer doing the honours but in very different circumstances.

First up, we lost Milos Raonic to a quad injury, sustained in his match against Andy Murray and serious enough for Raonic not to risk ruining his 2015 season preparations.

Canada’s Milos Raonic reacts during his two set loss to Britain’s Andy Murray at the ATP World Tour Finals mens tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, 11 November 2014. EPA/ANDY RAIN

He said, in a press conference less than two hours before he was due to take to the court: “It was just something I sustained during my last match. Through extensive sort of research with the doctor’s team here, we found that I have a slight tear on the vastus medialis on my quad.”

He revealed he had initially been reluctant to admit that was the end of his season, but the cold hard facts presented to him left him no option as he was told he would be walking a tightrope and could lose six to weight weeks if the injury was worsened by his choosing to play.

“Losing six to eight weeks of solely rehab sort of means you lose 12 weeks of getting back into shape and everything, those are definitely significant factors in my decision. At some points I didn’t want to accept it and listen to it. But it is what it is. I, alongside my team, all the staff with the ATP, made the best decision I believe.”

So it was left to Andy Murray to give a supportive British crowd value for money. With a battering rally in just the third point of the first game, the crowds settled back in the belief that this would be the match to catch the tournament alight.

That was the only high point for Murray as Federer went on a run of 10 games in a row, as the crowd willed him to get back into the match. That he did, albeit briefly, finally avoiding the spectre of a double bagel, but to no-one’s surprise by that point, it was down to Federer to wrap up the match 6-0 6-1.

“He played exceptionally well,” said a despondent Murray in press. “I can say I’m disappointed with my level tonight. But if I played well, he probably still would have won anyway. He was striking the ball very, very clean. Made very few mistakes. Was hitting the ball off the middle of the racquet on serve, returns.”

Britain’s Andy Murray (L) following his 6-0 6-1 defeat by Switzerland’s Roger Federer (R) during a round robin match at the ATP World Tour Finals mens tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, 13 November 2014. EPA/ANDY RAIN

Needless to say Federer was less despondent although he did admit to feeling uncomfortable about that kind of score-line in this kind of competition, where the best eight players of the year compete.

He said: “I think if there’s a slight difference of the level from the baseline, hard to get out of it. We’ve seen it all week. The serve doesn’t have that much impact. I didn’t even necessarily serve so well. But you got to play the right way here, use the court to your advantage as much as you can.

“But I had the upper hand from the baseline, which hasn’t always happened against him. But I definitely was able to play on my terms. For me, things went very well. I was able to put Andy under pressure very often, and I think the match couldn’t have gone any better for me really.”

Group A concludes tomorrow with Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych in the day session and the battle of the book-ending Slam champions Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic to conclude the round-robin stages.

Topics: ATP Finals, Barclays ATP World Tour, global chick, London

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November 13, 2014 at 5:25 pm

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