TENNIS NEWS UPDATE FROM LONDON @ THE BARCLAYS ATP TOUR FINALS, KEI NISHIKORI BEATS TOMAS BERDYCH AND RECAP OF NADAL OVER WAWRINKA

Written by: Global Chick on 17th November 2015

TENNIS NEWS UPDATE FROM LONDON @ THE BARCLAYS ATP TOUR FINALS, KEI NISHIKORI BEATS TOMAS BERDYCH AND RECAP OF NADAL OVER WAWRINKA

epa05029850 Japan's Kei Nishikori returns the ball to Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic during their round robin match at the ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament in London, Britain, 17 November 2015. EPA/WILL OLIVER |

Praise be… a three-setter! – Day Three at the O2 Arena By Global Chick

Ahh, but Global Chick will keep you in suspense for just a little bit longer as we touch base on the happenings of Monday night.

Rafael Nadal def. Stan Wawrinka 6-3 6-2

How many of you have been to Blackpool? Anyone? Anyone? Let me explain thus. See Stan Wawrinka was a hotly fancied (!) dark horse for many of we scribing pundits. A decent turn of form these past weeks, including beating Rafael Nadal in Paris in the quarter-finals, gave him the edge… or so we thought.

Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka reacts after losing a point to Spain’s Rafael Nadal during their singles Ilie Nastase group match of the ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, 16 November 2015. EPA/ANDY RAIN

Two successive breaks had them once more on level par and suddenly it all started to unravel like a giant ball of string for the Swiss. Nadal might grumble about the surface, but his confidence is definitely coming back, and while the first set was competitive, there was more than a little bad tempered with Wawrinka serving almost as fast as he was losing points and spraying balls around so much it looked as though he had wanted to be a fireman when he grew up!

To be fair, Nadal did not need to do much to keep as Wawrinka had obviously been told that it is when the ball is outside the line that counts, but in terms of this competition, it perhaps turns things on their head now.

Before, we figured that Wawrinka was the dark horse and Nadal maybe the pit pony who could spring a surprise. Now we could well see the bout between Nadal and Andy Murray as the tipping point for the Brit – but more in that later.

Kei Nishikori def. Tomas Berdych 7-5 3-6 6-3

Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic returns the ball to Japan’s Kei Nishikori during their round robin match at the ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament in London, Britain, 17 November 2015. EPA/WILL OLIVER

After feeling ‘very ashamed’ of his performance against defending champion Novak Djokovic, we expected a far tighter match, because let’s be honest we were fast heading for the same situation as last year where the doubles were rousing, and the singles were… not.

It was a competitive first set but the Japanese player was the one that was constantly knocking at the door, finally getting rewarded at the tail end of the first set, on his fifth break point chance in the match.

It looked for a fraction of a second (well two games anyway) that Nishikori would run away with it, but just as quickly as he seemed to find his form, he surrendered five games on the bounce as Berdych stole the second set from under him.

So who would blink first in our first three-setter of the tournament? Well, no-one for most of it. The decisive break again came at the end of the set, and Nishikori finished things off with a solid hold to love.

Berdych is now really up against it, with Djokovic to come, while Nishikori will have to step up his game still further to give himself the best chance of making the semi-finals two years in a row.

Preview: Novak Djokovic v Roger Federer

After a slow start but a pretty comfortably finish, we wonder what tricks Federer will have in his tool bag. Back in Cincy when he was still having fun with the Sneak Attack By Roger (SABR) it had certainly rattled Djokovic’s cage.

But now this is no longer a novelty, but is Djokovic ready for it? More importantly is the crowd ready for a good solid match today?

It is a bit of a treat for the fans to see this pair duking it out so early in the rounds, but again that is what makes this so exciting a format for the year-end. Federer will have to be far sharper with his start. Berdych was lax and did not take any advantage with Federer in their opener, but the World No. 1 is unlikely to let him get away with that.

Talking after his victory over Tomas Berdych on Sunday, Federer said: “I played him here first round two years ago maybe. Three sets. I think that’s the year I played back-to-back London and Paris. We were both struggling with rhythm, I remember. I took an approach of, yeah, it was different. I played it more like keeping the ball in the court, not going for too much. We had longer rallies.

“It was an intense match. But we were both playing quite bad, I thought. We’ve had that in the past, and it was quite unusual then to play each other so early in a tournament. This doesn’t feel now so crazy early because we’ve had the week of preparation, we’ve both had a match now. I think we both feel like we’re in the tournament.”

Topics: 02 Arena, ATP Finals, global chick, Kei Nishikori, London tennis, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Sports, Stan Wawrinka, Tennis News, Tomas Berdych, World Tour Finals

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10sBalls_com says:

November 17, 2015 at 10:24 am

#Tennis News From London @ The #BarclaysATPWorldTourFinals, Nishikori Beats Berdych And Recap Of Nadal Over Wawrinka
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