Archive: November 2014
Check out these great EPA photos of Roger Federer at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.
And so they meet again.
Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer will collide for the fourth time in their careers at the World Tour Finals in an appropriate end to the 2014 ATP season with the world No. 1 and world No. 2 facing each other in the title match of the year-end championship. It will reach a climax on Sunday evening at London's O2 Arena.
It will be fascinating to see how the two warriors fare in the title match for the Barclays World Tour Finals. First in was Novak Djokovic, tested by an albeit crocked Kei Nishikori, and pushed to three sets. Even though the final set was a romp according to the score-line as the Serb advanced 6-1 3-6 6-0, ...
It will be Novak Djokovic vs. Roger Federer in the World Tour Finals championship match, but not before some serious drama took place on Saturday at the O2. After Novak Djokovic held off Kei Nishikori 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 in the first semifinal, the nightcap saw Federer survive four match points to outlast Swiss Davis Cup teammate Stan Wawrinka 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(6).
The watching crowds have been willing the tournament to catch light, and for the briefest of moments, the clouds that have settled on the East of London this week lifted momentarily to bring a three-set semi-final that had promise.
Are you not entertained?
The first semifinal of the 2014 World Tour Finals will not exactly go down as an instant classic nor was more than one set competitive, but it at least went the distance--a rare occurrence this week in London.
Check out these photos of the besties Caro Wozniacki & Serena Williams.
This week in London got off to an inauspicious start for Bob and Mike Bryan. They lost their opening round-robin doubles match in Group A competition at the World Tour Finals 7-6(3), 6-3 to Lukasz Kubot and Robert Lindstedt. Recovering from an 0-1 record--especially after losing in straight sets--is a challenging endeavor. Just ask this year's other participants.
There had not a single three-set singles match during round-robin play involving two of the original eight World Tour Finals participants. Alternate David Ferrer played one against Kei Nishikori on Thursday, but that was the extent of it until Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic took the court on Friday. Leave it to an almost entirely meaningless match to finally provide from excitement.
After what seems like an interminable age, we reach the end of the round-robins and embark on a straight shoot-out for title over the weekend. By now we have done to death the one-sided matches, the inability of competitors who have proved their worth on every surface imaginable to handle the slick indoor conditions in the tent of doom.
The relative disaster that was round-robin play at the World Tour Finals has given way to a pair of intriguing semifinal matches; ones that could end a disturbing trend of blowouts and inject life into London's O2 Arena. Saturday's proceedings will begin with Novak Djokovic going up against Kei Nishikori before the nightcap features an all-Swiss showdown between Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka.
At last we are at the business end of the tournament, and hopefully we will have a semi-final line-up that will do the season-ending finale with eight of the best male players of the year justice. First up we have the unstoppable Novak Djokovic who not only beat Tomas Berdych every bit as handily as he has been doing all week, but wrapped up the year-ending No. 1.
The drama has been taken out of just about every singles match right from the start so far this week in London. Novak Djokovic did the same to the battle for the year-end No. 1 ranking.
When the draw for the 2014 World Tour Finals was revealed, the face off between Murray and Federer stood out as one of the picks, if not the pick, of the group stages. Not only was their head to head record poised at 11 wins for each man, but given the last two seasons, this match was perhaps more significant than it may have initially appeared.
David Ferrer put in the hard yards for four days at the World Tour Finals. Every day, he fulfilled the requirements of an alternate by being on site prior to each singles match--two on Sunday, two on Monday, two on Tuesday, and another two on Wednesday. That's what an alternate has to do in case one--or both--of the scheduled participants suddenly pulls out.
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