ATP Makes An Embarrassing Mistake In Determining Qualifier Of Championship

Written by: Staff on 6th November 2011

ATP Makes An Embarrassing Mistake In Determining Qualifier Of Championship

Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych returns the ball to Croatia's Marin Cilic in the men's singles finals of the China Open Tennis tournament in Beijing, China, on 09 October 2011. Czech Tomas Berdych claimed his first ATP title in nearly two and a half years as he fought back to defeat Marin Cilic in 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 for victory in the final of the China Open on 09 October. EPA/ADRIAN BRADSHAW |

Mathematics have never exactly been the strong suit of the ATP World Tour. Many squirm when they remember the embarrassing scenes at the inaugural Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London two years ago when nobody was sure whether Juan Martin Del Potro had qualified for the semi-finals and similar awkwardness arose last night over whether Tomas Berdych has yet done sufficient to be officially included in this years top eight.

Berdych hardly earned his place with this week’s performance, losing in his first match at the Swiss Indoors in Basel to eventual finalist Kei Nishikori. Nevertheless the ATP initially calculated that Juan Martin Del Potro’s semi-final loss to Marcel Granollers at the Valencia Open on Saturday, was sufficient to guarantee Berdych one of the three remaining spots. The final two positions, insisted a spokesman, would be determined at the BNP Paribas Masters, which starts at the Palais Omnisports de Bercy on Monday.

So keen to broadcast the fact, the ATP actually alerted Berdych as he prepared to get back to winning ways at Bercy. “It feels great to qualify for the second consecutive year,” he said. It was one of my goals at the beginning of 2011 and my results have been very consistent this season. I have great memories of The O2, the event was amazing last year and I hope I will do better this time.”

Just over five hours later, clearly after some considerable embarrassment, the ATP once again announced they had got their math wrong and a correction was formally released that Berdych was still not technically secure in the final eight.

“We apologize that an error was made in the projected qualification of Tomas Berdych, and that he has not yet officially secured his place in the Top 8 at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals,” said the new statement. Not surprisingly Berdych was not asked to comment on this occasion.

So together with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Mardy Fish, Nicolas Almagro, Del Potro, Janko Tipsarevic, Gilles Simon and Gael Monfils, Berdych will do his best this week at Bercy.

“DAILY TENNIS NEWS WIRE”