The world's eight best male tennis players (minus Andy Murray) will be at the 02 Arena in London this week as they compete in the end of season world tour finals.
Murray's absence shouldn't put British tennis fans off as this will be a week full of high quality tennis with lots of interesting sub-plots along the way.
Novak Djokovic will be looking to prove that he is still the best in the world, whilst Rafael Nadal will be looking to win the event for the first time. Can Roger Federer have one final swansong or will Juan Martin Del Potro continue his recent superb form?
With that in mind, let's look at the two groups of four who'll be lining up in the UK capital.
Group A:
Rafael Nadal ( Seed 1). Who could have predicted this time last year that Nadal would be lining up in London as World Number One and the man to beat? You'd have been a brave individual to bet on that. But here we are with Nadal having won two more grand slams this year (the French Open and the US Open) as well as Masters titles in Indian Wells, Rome, Madrid, Toronto and Cincinnati.
He might have lost to David Ferrer in the semi-finals in Paris yesterday, but Nadal will be very happy with his draw. He lines up against three players he has had the beating of on a regular basis over the years.
He has 20 wins out of 25 matches against David Ferrer, 16 wins out of 19 against Tomas Berdych and a perfect 11 wins out of 11 against Stanislas Wawrinka and will be big favourite to top this group.
David Ferrer (Seed 3): Nadal's fellow Spaniard has had something of a breakthrough year in 2013, particularly when he reached his first Grand Slam final at the French Open in June, before losing to that man Nadal.
He also reached a career high ranking of world number three and every player knows they are going to be in a battle with Ferrer when they take him on, no matter the surface. Slightly worrying for Ferrer is that despite reaching nine finals this year, he has only won two and they were both at the start of the year.
More positively, he has a winning record against both Berdych (7-3) and Wawrinka (7-4) so he'll fancy his chances of getting through the group.
Tomas Berdych (Seed 5) The Czech big-hitter is another consistent performer, but the question is- can he challenge the likes of Nadal and Djokovic at the very top here? He has hardly been handed a kind draw with losing records against all players (his 5-7 record against Wawrinka rounding out a poor sequence), but this is his fourth consecutive world tour finals appearance.
Berdych proved at Wimbledon in 2010 that he can beat the best as he enjoyed wins over Federer in the quarters and Djokovic in the semis before losing to Nadal in the final. However, that was over three years ago and you can't say he's kicked on since then. And even Wawrinka could pose a big threat to his chances since the Swiss star beat him at the US Open in August.
Stan Wawrinka (Seed 7) Wawrinka's performances since the summer have been sensational, enabling him to compete in his first World Tour Finals. He showed signs in January that he might finally be stepping out of countryman's Roger Federer's shadow, when he forced Novak Djokovic into a five hour, five set epic at the Australian Open, but he really delivered at the US Open when he beat Berdych, before thrashing Murray in the quarter finals.
And he arguably should have defeated Djokovic in his first ever grand slam semi-final when he had a two sets to one lead. The belief is there now with Wawrinka and whilst he might have prefered a group without Nadal, he can nick in to take the second spot away from the fancied Ferrer.
Prediction
1. Nadal
2. Wawrinka
3. Ferrer
4. Berdych
Group B
Novak Djokovic (Seed 2) Last years winner Djokovic has been drawn in a tough group, but the Serb has never been a player to shirk a challenge. He might have lost his number one ranking to Nadal, but there can be no denying he's still had a good year.
He became the first man in the 'Open Era' to win three consecutive Australian Opens when he defeated Murray in January and he also made the finals at Wimbledon and the US Open.
Add in Masters titles in Monte Carlo and Shanghai as well as a French Open semi-final, the Serb has hardly hit a crisis by falling to number two in the world. He might have a losing record against Federer, but would always be big favourite to beat him nowadays whilst against Del Potro he has a record of 10 wins in 13 matches and against Richard Gasquet, it's nine wins from 10 meetings. Like Nadal, I expect the top seed to top the group.
Juan Martin Del Potro (Seed 4) The Argentinian is slowly reproducing his best form and says himself he is playing his best tennis since 2009, when he won the US Open and reached the final of this event.
He has again been hampered somewhat with injuries again this year, causing him to miss the French Open whilst he suffered early exits at both the Australian and US Opens. However, he was brilliant at Wimbledon, pushing Djokovic all the way in a five set thriller in the semis and in recent weeks he has been in great form. He has won titles in Switzerland and Japan as well as reaching a final in China.
His huge forehand and sheer presence of being 6 foot 6 make him my darkhorse to go all the way in London.
Roger Federer (Seed 6) The 17 times record slam winner may have qualified for a 12th consecutive end of season final event, but there can be no doubting he is not as good as he used to be. If you exclude his Wimbledon triumph of last year, he is without a slam since 2010 and has fallen to number six in the world.
Players simply don't fear him anymore and that can be typified by his defeats to Murray, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Tommy Robredo and the unheralded Sergiy Stakhovsky in the Grand Slams of 2013. Indeed, this is the first year Federer failed to reach a slam final since 2002 and his body is definitely slowing down.
He is still capable of moments of magic as he proved last week when he came from a set down to beat Del Potro in Paris, but those days are becoming rarer and rarer and he has only won one title this season.
Djokovic and Del Potro will prove too strong for Federer, so it will be a group stage exit for the fans favourite.
Richard Gasquet (Seed 8) Gasquet will be going out to prove to critics that he isn't simply there to make up the numbers this week. The Frenchman is in London on merit having won three titles this year and he reached the US Open semi finals.
His single-handed backhand is one to behold (like Federer's and Wawrinka's too) and in a shorter format, he can be a danger to anyone. However, with a combined four wins against his three group stage opponents, it's hard to see how Gasquet can get out of the group.
His mental ability can also be called into question, so he'll need to be at his very best to beat three superb players.
Prediction
1. Djokovic
2. Del Potro
3. Federer
4. Gasquet
It all starts tomorrow at 2pm with Berdych and Wawrinka getting things underway before Del Potro and Gasquet take to the court at 8pm. Then on Tuesday it's the ties of Nadal V Ferrer and Djokovic V Federer.
No comments:
Post a Comment