ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Pighead

Nadal, Federer, Djockovic, Soderling, Murray, Berdych, Ferrer, Roddick.

Should be a great week of tennis ahead with the above players all battling it out to win the end of season World tour Final.

Murray is first up today and he's up against a very much in form Soderling. Fancy the Swede to upset the Scot today and I've had 3 points @2.3. Soderling has won eight of his last 9 matches on this indoor surface and won in Paris last week. Murray has gradually been returning to his best form but he's not quite there yet and he could be vulnerable today. Should be close but I fancy the Swede.

Second up is Federer against one of my favourite players David Ferrer. Fed will probably win this but I wouldn't be surprised if the gritty Spaniard brought Rog to three sets. Good days tennis in store.

Overall Nadal has to be the call. He's lost just twice since the US Open and is well rested coming into this having skipped Paris last week.

Links here. Murray just about to start.
http://www.livescorehunter.com/Livescores/Livescore-Tennis.html

Pighead

Excellent tennis from Murray there. That first set of tennis was near perfect from him. Soderling had his chances in the second set but he was really poor at the net today. Just the start Murray needed as he's in a very tough group.

RosyLily

Fantastic tennis from Murray. Soderling was always going to be a problem but he dealt with him well!

Federer is currently 6-1 3-2 against David Ferrer. Great first set from Fed Express. Improved second set from Ferrer.

Was surprised to read that Nestor-Zimonjic are ending their partnership after the tournament. They are a fantastic team! Nestor will team with Max Mirnyi and Zimonjic with Michael Llodra.

It was nice to see a retirement ceremony for Carlos Moya. He's been a great ambassador for Spanish tennis for 15 years. Good player!!

RL

Rob2D

What the hell?! I want to watch Nadal v Roddick now but BBC is only showing the day matches. People have to work during the day BBC, it'd be nice if you could put on something in the evenings. Well disappointed.

hollowlands

The evening matches are on the BBC red button, although it's not available on freeview.

Scratch that. Just tried there now, to watch Nadal v Djokovic and it's not there. Could've sworn I heard they'd have the evening matches on the red button.

RosyLily

Nole beat Berdych yesterday, 6-3 6-3. Great match from Djokovic; he could be a dark horse to win this tournament.

Nadal v. Roddick was a great match!! Rafa won 3-6 7-6 6-4; he was miles better than last year where he failed to win a set. Roddick put up a great fight but in the end, Nadal was too strong.

Up today:
Dlouhy/Paes vs Melzer/Petzschner

Not Before 2:00 PM
Federer vs Murray

Not before 6:15 PM
B Bryan/M Bryan vs Fyrstenberg/Matkowski

Not before 8:00 PM
Soderling vs Ferrer

Pighead

Fed wins easily. Missed the match, so not sure if it was a case of Fed at his best or Murray slightly under par. Thought it would be a close one today after seeing Murray dismantle Soderling on Sunday. Murray has to beat Ferrer next otherwise he's a goner.

the_monkey

Nadal doing his usual "Im injured im injured im not at my best" CHEATING !!!


To give Djokovic a false sense of security , then easily beats him.

The guy is a low life and a disgrace to the game

Johnmb

the_monkey wrote: »

Nadal doing his usual "Im injured im injured im not at my best" CHEATING !!!


To give Djokovic a false sense of security , then easily beats him.

The guy is a low life and a disgrace to the game

Did I miss something? If Djokovic felt any sense of security, given that he lost the first set and was never ahead in the second set, and seemed to be unable to see from about three quarters of the way through the first set, then he was delusional. Admittedly I missed a chunk of the second set, but it was over so fast I can't imagine Nadal having much time to show he was injured at all!

the_monkey

Johnmb wrote: »

Did I miss something? If Djokovic felt any sense of security, given that he lost the first set and was never ahead in the second set, and seemed to be unable to see from about three quarters of the way through the first set, then he was delusional. Admittedly I missed a chunk of the second set, but it was over so fast I can't imagine Nadal having much time to show he was injured at all!

Before games, interviews etc ...." poor me poor me ... the ATP has me doing too much - I m not 100%" ... LIAR !!! he is ****ing 100% if he beats an inform Djokovic 5 and 2 ...

Johnmb

the_monkey wrote: »

Before games, interviews etc ...." poor me poor me ... the ATP has me doing too much - I m not 100%" ... LIAR !!! he is ****ing 100% if he beats an inform Djokovic 5 and 2 ...

All the top players are moaning about that. It doesn't give any of them an advantage by lulling any of the others, who are doing the exact same thing, into a false sense of security. If anything, Nadal was fresher since he didn't play Paris, and Djokovic was fully aware of that.

Pighead

the_monkey wrote: »

Before games, interviews etc ...." poor me poor me ... the ATP has me doing too much - I m not 100%" ... LIAR !!! he is ****ing 100% if he beats an inform Djokovic 5 and 2 ...

I'm guessing you didn't watch the match then? Nadal didn't beat an in form Djokovic 5 and 2. He beat a Djokovic who was severely hampered by an eye problem from about the seventh game of the match.

"I really feel sick talking about it because it's just incredible that this happened to me. It never happened to me in my life," said Djokovic.

"I'm really annoyed something like this can really affect the match. It did because my right eye got irritated and from the 5-5 I could not play. I could not see a ball, especially on the return. It was just terrible.

"I don't want to find any excuses for my loss, but the fact of the matter is that I just could not play. I could not play. These things happen. It's out of my control. Unfortunately, it happened in a very important match, in a very important moment.

the_monkey

Complicated now if Roddick manages to beat Djokovic later, it will go down to sets won on who will go through...

Johnmb

the_monkey wrote: »

Complicated now if Roddick manages to beat Djokovic later, it will go down to sets won on who will go through...

Actually it's straight forward now. If Roddick wins in straight sets he goes through in 2nd place. Anything else, and Djokovic goes through in 2nd place.

the_monkey

Johnmb wrote: »

Actually it's straight forward now. If Roddick wins in straight sets he goes through in 2nd place. Anything else, and Djokovic goes through in 2nd place.

Wow ! , seems strange that it's possible to go through with 1 win ..

the_monkey

what time is the match on, is it on BBC iPlayer ?

Johnmb

the_monkey wrote: »

Wow ! , seems strange that it's possible to go through with 1 win ..

Yep, and the other side of that coin is that it is also possible to win 2 matches and not get through, like what happened Murray last year.

the_monkey

Johnmb wrote: »

Yep, and the other side of that coin is that it is also possible to win 2 matches and not get through, like what happened Murray last year.

jesus, unlucky, must have lost his one match badly..

Johnmb

the_monkey wrote: »

jesus, unlucky, must have lost his one match badly..

No, it actually came down to one game difference! There was a lot of confusion on the court after the last match, it took them about 10 minutes to let Del Potro know that he had gotten through in the end. A lot of standing around looking clueless by the TV interviewer as the player wasn't interested in doing the interview until he had found out if he was in or out. Del Potro beat Federer 6-3 in the 3rd set, if he had beaten Federer 6-4, Murray would have gone through.

the_monkey

Poor Murray just lost to Nadal 6-7(5) 6-3 6-7(6) .

harsh he won more games and I think he deserved to win.

This fella Nadal is a cod, did you see his disgracefull behaviour
with Berdych - I mean he's allready qualified, and he's cruising in the
match and he's threatening to quit ??

Apart from the fact that he is no.1 arguably the best player in the history of the game and crying like a kid "Im not playing , im not playing" ... like a spoilt kid in Xmas morning with 100 toys crying cos he hasn't got 200.

A Disgrace - the Ronaldo of Tennis.

Johnmb

the_monkey wrote: »

Poor Murray just lost to Nadal 6-7(5) 6-3 6-7(6) .

harsh he won more games and I think he deserved to win.

This fella Nadal is a cod, did you see his disgracefull behaviour
with Berdych - I mean he's allready qualified, and he's cruising in the
match and he's threatening to quit ??

Apart from the fact that he is no.1 arguably the best player in the history of the game and crying like a kid "Im not playing , im not playing" ... like a spoilt kid in Xmas morning with 100 toys crying cos he hasn't got 200.

A Disgrace - the Ronaldo of Tennis.

Okay, I'm not Nadal's biggest fan, but he did not threaten to quit. He was actually right in his complaint, the umpire was wrong. He approached, what the announcers referred to as the tournament supervisor. I'm not sure if that is the same as the tournament referee or not, but he was right to call on the referee, and if that guy was the referee then he should not be allowed to keep the job going forward unless he shows he actually knows the rules of tennis. The umpire called Berdych's ball long, Nadal hit it back into court and rightfully stopped playing. Berdych challenged and the ball was in. That was the umpires first error, he should only be overruling clear mistakes, even if that had been out, it was too close to be a clear mistake. Once the ball was ruled in, it should have been a let as the shot wasn't a winner, Nadal had played it back into the court and it was not a sitter for Berdych. Nadal didn't challenge on when the call was made (a matter of fact that was totally at the umpires discretion) he challenged on whether, having hit the ball back into court, it should have been a let or Berdych's point, a matter of law and therefore the referee had an input and the rules clearly state that it should have been a let, replay the point.

MisterAnarchy

Federer gave Nadal a tennis lesson in that first set ,really blew him away with winners and aggressive tennis.
100% points won on his first serve in the first set.
Federer is going off the boil in the second set,his first serve is failing him,only got one first serve in and was broken by Nadal who is grinding his way along.

Bodhisopha

It defies logic how when not at 100% Nadal can still find the will and courage to grind down a legend like Federer.

MisterAnarchy

Bodhisopha wrote: »

It defies logic how when not at 100% Nadal can still find the will and courage to grind down a legend like Federer.

At times today Federer is making Nadal look very poor in open play but Federer is struggling to return Nadals serve which is keeping Nadal in the match.

MisterAnarchy

That will be a sweet win for Federer who looked back to his best of a few years ago and gave Nadal a good hiding.
Federer's first serve was excellent,his backhand was good and he was alot less reliant on his forehand.He mixed it up well too .
2011 should be a good year for tennis .:)

hollowlands

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

That will be a sweet win for Federer who looked back to his best of a few years ago and gave Nadal a good hiding.
Federer's first serve was excellent,his backhand was good and he was alot less reliant on his forehand.He mixed it up well too .
2011 should be a good year for tennis .:)

2 sets to 1 against a Nadal who went for over 3 hours against Murray just 24 hours previously. Although, Nadal has had better performances after being through worse, he did look absolutely knackered towards the end of yesterday's match.

It was a great performance from Federer but Nadal will definitely be happier with the year overall.

Johnmb

hollowlands wrote: »

2 sets to 1 against a Nadal who went for over 3 hours against Murray just 24 hours previously. Although, Nadal has had better performances after being through worse, he did look absolutely knackered towards the end of yesterday's match.

It was a great performance from Federer but Nadal will definitely be happier with the year overall.

In fairness, Nadal's 3 hour matches are not like everyone else's 3 hour matches. Taking 2 minutes between points makes it a lot easier!

hollowlands

Johnmb wrote: »

In fairness, Nadal's 3 hour matches are not like everyone else's 3 hour matches. Taking 2 minutes between points makes it a lot easier!

That's why I prefer to record Nadal's matches and watch them after. As soon as the point's over, I'm on the fast forward. I think he seems to be a bit quicker between points on the hardcourts. He just takes the piss when on clay. I wish the umpires would start cracking down because surely he'd have to speed up then.

MisterAnarchy

hollowlands wrote: »

That's why I prefer to record Nadal's matches and watch them after. As soon as the point's over, I'm on the fast forward. I think he seems to be a bit quicker between points on the hardcourts. He just takes the piss when on clay. I wish the umpires would start cracking down because surely he'd have to speed up then.

Yes ,he is taking far too long between points.Its bordering on the ridiculous to be honest.
I'm all in favour of someone being methodical and not rushing but he is consistently taking 30 secs between points.
He was even looking for the towel today in the second game of the match !:)

RosyLily

Great match overall! Federer played some sensational tennis in the first set. Reminiscent of the Federer c. 2004-07. Hope he keeps this up for 2011.

2011 should be an epic time in tennis!! Very excited!!

BazBox

Federer looked back to his best against Nadal, and Nadal refused to use fatigue as an excuse in the post match interview, just saying he lost to the better player

Tennis is looking good for 2011, Im a big Nadal fan so hope he does well but it would be great to see the likes of Djokovic and Del Potro do well also

RosyLily

BazBox wrote: »

Federer looked back to his best against Nadal, and Nadal refused to use fatigue as an excuse in the post match interview, just saying he lost to the better player

Tennis is looking good for 2011, Im a big Nadal fan so hope he does well but it would be great to see the likes of Djokovic and Del Potro do well also

My god, totally forgot about J.M.!!:o Looking forward to seeing him back next year! He's a fantastic addition to the mens tour.

Watch out 2011!! Gonna be one helluva year!!:D