TUESDAY TENNIS AT THE WORLD TOUR FINALS IN LONDON – WHO IS RAFAEL NADAL ? AND ROGER FEDERER SAYS A TOWEL IS A TOWEL AS HE BEATS NOVAK DJOKOVIC BY RICKY DIMON

Written by: on 17th November 2015
ATP World Tour Finals in London
TUESDAY TENNIS AT THE WORLD TOUR FINALS IN LONDON - WHO IS RAFAEL NADAL ? AND ROGER FEDERER SAYS A TOWEL IS A TOWEL AS HE BEATS NOVAK DJOKOVIC BY RICKY DIMON

epa05028861 Spain's Rafael Nadal celebrates after defeating Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka in 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  |

Tuesday at the World Tour Finals: Nadal undercover and Federer vs. Towel

 

At Rafael Nadal’s practice on Tuesday afternoon at the World Tour Finals, some onlooker pointed to Nadal and asked the person next to her, “Who is that?”

 

Yes, this is the kind of stuff that happens when the practice courts are open and free to the public. Situated several hundred yards away from the actual match arena and before fans have to go through the turnstiles, practices can be watched by just about anyone and everyone inside the O2.

 

Fortunately, for the most part people who are at the arena for other reasons and know nothing about tennis–like the aforementioned woman–tend to stay away. So prime real estate at practice sessions is generally available to the hardcore tennis-lovers.

 

On the match court, Bob and Mike Bryan stayed alive in their round-robin group by doing a complete about-face following their disastrous first match. The Bryans, who previously lost easily to Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea, made quick work of Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli. The Italians are eliminated, while the Americans will face Jamie Murray and John Peers for a place in the semis.

 

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic returns the ball to Switzerland’s Roger Federer during their round robin game at the ATP World Tour Finals in London, Britain, 17 November 2015. EPA/WILL OLIVER

Afterward, the Bryans thanked the fans–sincerely–for coming out. Then they added–jokingly, sort of–that they knew they were really there for the following match between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

 

At that point Bob was asked to pick the Djokovic-Federer winner. Instead of answering himself, he polled the crowd. First Federer. Then Djokovic. Surprisingly, at least as much noise was made for the world No. 1. Perhaps that was more about who they thought would win as opposed to who they hoped would win.

 

While Federer’s upset win proved to be surprisingly straightforward, the day ended with some press-conference gold.

 

It began when Djokovic argued that he “handed the win” to Federer. Told of what the Serb said, Federer responded that he “would like to give myself credit” for making Djokovic play well below his best level.

 

Federer’s presser concluded with a question regarding his choice of bench. Having been introduced to the court first, the Swiss appeared to choose the bench that was assigned to Djokovic based on the inscribed towel that was hanging on it.

 

Towel-gate ensued:

“Okay, a towel doesn’t mean much to me, to be quite honest,” Federer answered. “I’m not going to be pushed by a towel. I sat on that chair when I walked out against Tomas. I said, I’d like to sit here again. I walked out first. Usually the guy who walks out first decides which side he wants to sit on. That’s the rules to me, not a towel, to be quite honest.

 

Maybe to you a towel matters more. To me a towel is to take a shower with.”

 

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

 

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