At last, we've had an interesting match at the World Tour Finals! After three more blow-out, straight matches in the first singles and the first two doubles matches, the night match between Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal featured stellar tennis from both players. Roddick won the first set and was up a break in the second set, but Nadal picked up his game and the American couldn't quite stay level with the world number one from the back of the court. It was a very hard-fought match, and even though he didn't come away with the victory, Roddick has to be encouraged by the result.
He came into the event playing solid tennis, but he hadn't had a win against a top-ten player since Cincinnati, and his injury status was sort of unresolved. But he started the event playing the only player in his group that he has a losing record against, the reigning champion of the past three grand slams, and world number one. If he could have won that match, Roddick would have felt pretty confident about being able to run the table. Frankly, if he can play as well as he did against Nadal in his next two matches, Berdych doesn't have a shot, and Djokovic could be in trouble. Obviously, Roddick will be disappointed by the way his level dipped at key moments (serving up a minibreak in the second set tiebreak?) but overall, he was playing at a very high level. He forced the top player in the world to dig deep and play his very best tennis. Roddick's still in with a shout, which is the benefit of the round robin format.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, I think we may have our second and perhaps third tightly-contested matches, since the line-up is absolutely appetizing. First off, we have Federer vs. Murray, a rematch of the Australian Open, Toronto, and Shanghai finals, this year. Murray leads the overall head to head 8-5 and this year by 2-1. Both of them won their opening matches, so a victory tomorrow would all but seal their place in the semifinals. Not to mention the fact that Federer won their meeting at the finals last year (in London!) but Murray won the year before - there's a lot on the line, here. I think Murray probably played better in his opening round match, but his opponent also played worse. Murray has gotten the better of Federer more often than not lately (when it hasn't been in a Grand Slam, anyway) but Fed has been in better form. This one's too close to call.
But if there's a lot riding on the first match, there's even more riding on the second one. Robin Soderling and David Ferrer, who each lost their opening rounds, need a win to stay in contention. Not to mention, the pair met five times this year (the most meetings of any pair in 2010, leading up to the World Tour Finals) with Soderling leading 3-2, but Ferrer won two of the last three. Their five meetings were all since Wimbledon, too - which means they have had plenty of looks at each other's games in the past few months. Ferrer played better in his opening match, but Soderling was in great form two weeks ago in Paris. Again, this one is just too close to call.
I'm excited for both of these matches, and hoping that they can live up to the level of play that Roddick and Nadal set today.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
World Tour Finals Day 1
So the first day of action at the World Tour Finals was a bit of a dud, in all honesty.
Robin Soderling may have replaced Andy Murray as the world number four and won his first Masters Series shield last week, but he looked very much like the Soderling of a couple years ago who was mired around 25 in the world against Murray today. Honestly, I was really puzzled by Soderling's tactics today. It was always going to be tough for Soderling to hang from the back of the court with Murray, since the Scot can run down just about anything. But I thought that the solution for the Swede was just to bludgeon the ball with increasing force. That's been the formula for beating Murray in the past - Verdasco, Gonzalez, Berdych, Cilic, Querrey, even Soderling did it that way in their previous matches. The secret was out. But shockingly, today Robin's gameplan was to rush the net every chance he got, where he was either completely helpless on his volleys or a target for Murray to pass. It was a beatdown.
The second match, between Roger Federer and David Ferrer, looks like it had a similar scoreline, but it was actually a bit closer than that. Ferrer may have won fewer games, but that's in large part because he started off the match in absolutely awful form, spraying his forehand and unable to hit a first serve. He finally got into the match, but he was already down a double break, and once he blinked in the second set, it was pretty much over. Still, it was a much more encouraging performance from Ferrer than from Soderling - the Spaniard actually knew what he had to do in order to beat Federer, he just couldn't play at that high a level for long enough, and he missed a couple key points. Soderling just looked baffled and overawed by the situation.
Looking ahead to tomorrow's matches, it's very difficult for me to see Berdych upsetting Djokovic. Since the two played at Wimbledon, their levels of play could not have been any different. Berdych has been absolutely AWOL while Djokovic has found the best form he's been in since early 2008. Barring a miraculous revival from Berdych (or a grievous injury to Novak) there's no way that the Serb loses this one.
The night match tomorrow could be very interesting, but I think that the odds of letdown are pretty high here. Both players are in questionable condition here - Nadal skipped the last tournament of the year due to injury. We'll find out tomorrow whether he would have skipped that tournament regardless of where it fell in the calendar, or if he was just limiting his play in order to maximize his chances here at the year-end championships. Normally, that's not a tactic I'd associate with Nadal, but these championships are the biggest hole in Nadal resume by far. If he was just saving his strength for this event, the rest of the field could be in trouble. But if he's really hobbled and worn down by another long (if spectacular) season, then the other players in his group have a good shot.
Roddick's level of play may be just as much a question mark. He squeaked into the year-end championships after his year, which started out spectacularly, was sidetracked by a mild bout of mono and injury. All week, he's been saying that he's just glda to have qualified, and nobody's really talking about him as a contender. Either he's really not thinking he's at a level where he can win four to five matches against the best players in the game, or he's just flying under the radar.
We'll know a lot more about the answers to both of these questions after the match tomorrow. I'm very curious to see how it goes.
Robin Soderling may have replaced Andy Murray as the world number four and won his first Masters Series shield last week, but he looked very much like the Soderling of a couple years ago who was mired around 25 in the world against Murray today. Honestly, I was really puzzled by Soderling's tactics today. It was always going to be tough for Soderling to hang from the back of the court with Murray, since the Scot can run down just about anything. But I thought that the solution for the Swede was just to bludgeon the ball with increasing force. That's been the formula for beating Murray in the past - Verdasco, Gonzalez, Berdych, Cilic, Querrey, even Soderling did it that way in their previous matches. The secret was out. But shockingly, today Robin's gameplan was to rush the net every chance he got, where he was either completely helpless on his volleys or a target for Murray to pass. It was a beatdown.
The second match, between Roger Federer and David Ferrer, looks like it had a similar scoreline, but it was actually a bit closer than that. Ferrer may have won fewer games, but that's in large part because he started off the match in absolutely awful form, spraying his forehand and unable to hit a first serve. He finally got into the match, but he was already down a double break, and once he blinked in the second set, it was pretty much over. Still, it was a much more encouraging performance from Ferrer than from Soderling - the Spaniard actually knew what he had to do in order to beat Federer, he just couldn't play at that high a level for long enough, and he missed a couple key points. Soderling just looked baffled and overawed by the situation.
Looking ahead to tomorrow's matches, it's very difficult for me to see Berdych upsetting Djokovic. Since the two played at Wimbledon, their levels of play could not have been any different. Berdych has been absolutely AWOL while Djokovic has found the best form he's been in since early 2008. Barring a miraculous revival from Berdych (or a grievous injury to Novak) there's no way that the Serb loses this one.
The night match tomorrow could be very interesting, but I think that the odds of letdown are pretty high here. Both players are in questionable condition here - Nadal skipped the last tournament of the year due to injury. We'll find out tomorrow whether he would have skipped that tournament regardless of where it fell in the calendar, or if he was just limiting his play in order to maximize his chances here at the year-end championships. Normally, that's not a tactic I'd associate with Nadal, but these championships are the biggest hole in Nadal resume by far. If he was just saving his strength for this event, the rest of the field could be in trouble. But if he's really hobbled and worn down by another long (if spectacular) season, then the other players in his group have a good shot.
Roddick's level of play may be just as much a question mark. He squeaked into the year-end championships after his year, which started out spectacularly, was sidetracked by a mild bout of mono and injury. All week, he's been saying that he's just glda to have qualified, and nobody's really talking about him as a contender. Either he's really not thinking he's at a level where he can win four to five matches against the best players in the game, or he's just flying under the radar.
We'll know a lot more about the answers to both of these questions after the match tomorrow. I'm very curious to see how it goes.
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