ATP World Tour Finals: London

Seveneric said:
And I have to :lol: at Roddick coming in with a attacking the net game plan because it worked for him so well at Indian Wells earlier this year and not having a plan B. It worked the first time because it had the surprise factor, he's not even that good of a net player. Once Nadal started finding his range on his forehand and backhand passing shots, he was toast. Again last night's match also proved to me that Nadal's returning game has really deteriorated. Used to be the best/2nd best returner in the game, now I'd put him behind Djokovic, Murray and Federer.
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Roddick is so limited and predictable it's a joke. Any rallies lasting more than 8 shots, Roddick won just 25% of the points by the end of the match.

Some of his volleys at the net were great but really serve and volley was all he knew. A set and a break up and he bottled it.

That being said Nadal was pretty rubbish himself. Maybe it's because of his shoulder problems over the last month and the fact he's not played any tennis in over a month but he looked very poor. For the 1st two serves his serving was poor and he's just lost the ability to convert break points. Since that Djoko final his break point conversion has been a joke. But well he won a match in London atlast :D

Hope he can take a set today against Djoko.
 
Got tickets for the Federrer vs Soderling match. Any advice on travelling by car from Manchester?

I'm thinking of driving to Luton, park my car there and use the train to go to o2 arena. Anyone been there lately?
 
Berdych beat Roddick pretty easily. 7-5 6-3.

Not great news for Nadal this actually. He definitely needs to beat Berdych now in the final match if, as expected, he loses to Djoko today.

It might end up coming down to sets/games won :nervous:
 
Oh and in the time before and during Wimbledon we used to have a lot of debates about Nadal and "cheating" etc and someone had said he's never won the Sportsmanship award.

Well he's won it now :D

 
Nadal Djoko 2-2 in the first set. Djoko has held with ease but I'm just happy Nadal's not been broken yet!
 
Pheeew. Nadal takes the 7-5 after many twists. Nadal almost managed to bottle it when serving for the set nad giving away 3 break points but luckily Djokovich bottled it even worse.

75 mins long this set :eek:
 
Nadal wins 7-5 6-2. That should be enough for him to go through barring some sort of disaster in the next round of group games.

Novak will be hoping for a favor from Rafa!

PS: Actually Nadal's not through by any means yet. He can't afford to lose in straight sets vs Berdych. He needs to win or lose in 3 sets and he'll be through.

Novak needs to beat Roddick in straight sets (if Berdych wins in 3) or else it could go down to games won.

As things stand Rafa is 3-0 in sets won-lost.
Novak is 2-2 and Berdych is 2-2 as well.

Now Novak beat Berdych 6-3 6-3 and lost to Nadal 7-5 6-2 today.

Berdych lost 6-3 6-3 to Nole and won 7-5 6-3 today. So as things stand Novak has 19 games won and Berdych is on 19 games won as well so it's really tight.

Roddick is yet in with a chance thanks to Nadal beating Djokvic. He's currently on 0-2 and is 1-4 in sets won-lost. He can yet go through if he beats Djokovic in straight sets and then Hope that Nadal beats Berdych. If Nadal and Roddick win in straight sets their both through. If Nadal wins in 3 sets and Roddick wins in straight then it'll go down to games won between Roddick and Berdych.

Lots of permutations possible.
 
From the BBC :

2228: Just a reminder on the table permutations. If players finish after three matches level on wins, it goes down to the following priorities: 1) head-to-head 2) % of sets won 3) % of games won. The event organiser comes out and explains that Djokovic was struggling after putting the contact lens in correctly the second time. He suggests the lens may have just dried out or he had something behind it. Not the most definitive of answers but those are the facts we have.

Since head to head is priority the previous post might be slightly wrong.
 
The Murray group is interesting. Fed just needs 4 games to qualify so I wonder if he'll win a set and then tank the match.
 
Fed won the 1st set 7-6 vs Soderling.

Soderling had a great chance to break in the first game of the 2nd set but missed an easy pass down the line and bottled it.

Federer has now qualified as group winner and should he win this in straight sets Murray is pretty much through barring a huge defeat vs Ferrer.
 
wr8_utd said:
The Murray group is interesting. Fed just needs 4 games to qualify so I wonder if he'll win a set and then tank the match.
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Don't think its Feds way of doing things. He just needs to concentrate on his own game and he usually comes out on top regardless of the opposition.
 
Raees said:
Don't think its Feds way of doing things. He just needs to concentrate on his own game and he usually comes out on top regardless of the opposition.
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Well even if he did try to tank it today Soderling would have done nothing ;)

Fed wins 7-6 6-3. Sod is pretty much out now.
 
By the way mate, for the evening matches.. any particular site you use to watch it or is it on TV? need to catch Murrays game.
 
Raees said:
By the way mate, for the evening matches.. any particular site you use to watch it or is it on TV? need to catch Murrays game.
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I watch it on TV but you could watch it on atdhe.net or myp2p.eu.

Brilliant for almost any sport :D
 
wr8_utd said:
I watch it on TV but you could watch it on atdhe.net or myp2p.eu.

Brilliant for almost any sport :D
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Aye I'll try the first tonight, latter has let me down past few days!
 
So Soderling is out, and except by some magical surge in form from Ferrer which leads to a Murray thrashing, Ferrer is also out.
 
Seveneric said:
So Soderling is out, and except by some magical surge in form from Ferrer which leads to a Murray thrashing, Ferrer is also out.
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So happy Soderling is out. Dislike that guy and he's also a danger to Nadal on these courts. Hoping for Ferrer thrashing Murray but that's unlikely. It's probably going to be Nadal Murray in the semi's which probably means another hard court loss to Murray for Nadal I'm afraid :(

Nadal's finally started beating Djoko on hard courts, he needs to do the same with Murray as well.
 
Murray wins the set 6-2. Absolute self destruction by Ferrer. Murray's been very good though. He's through to the semis now.
 
Murray breaks early in the 2nd set and immediately gets broken to love. Is there a more inconsistent player in the top 10 than Andy Murray?
 
2135: And here's Murray on the match. "It feels great to be in the semis in London," he said. "They've put on an unbelievable tournament here and it's been almost packed every match. I'd like to play against Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals on Saturday."
 
Good performance by Murray, luckily got a stream.. hopefully he has a titanic tussle with Nadal and comes out on top.

If so, it'd be interesting to see if he's learnt from that loss v Fedex.
 
Raees said:
Good performance by Murray, luckily got a stream.. hopefully he has a titanic tussle with Nadal and comes out on top.

If so, it'd be interesting to see if he's learnt from that loss v Fedex.
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I expect Murray to do a Nalbandian and beat Federer after losing in the round robin but beating him in the final.
 
Berdych leads 5-4 now. Nadal has looked very good on serve but playing some bizarre tennis on Berdych's serve.

Again now at 4-4 at 15-15 on Berdych's serve he had an open court to hit a winner in with Birdich no where near and he hits it long. Needs to take one of these chances on the berdych serve pretty soon.
 
Wow. NEVER seen Nadal this furious. Infact never even seen him furious. He went absolutely crazy right now at 5-6 at 15-15.

Berdych challenged a call and it should have been a replayed point but somehow the umpire decided to hand the point to Berdych. Nadal went crazy. He even seemed to threaten not to play!

But the worst thing you can do is piss Nadal off. He came back with a vengeance from there and took the tie break 7-3.

He's through to the semis :D

Interesting conversation between Rafa and the umpire in Spanish. The umpire calls "long" after Nadal raises his arm to challenge the call. Berdych then challenges and replays show it's in. It should be a replay of the point but the umpire hands the point to Berdych. Nadal is steamingly unhappy. BBC
 
Nadal wins 7-6 6-1. Stunning second set performance. He's been improving with every match.

Will need to improve his returning and conversion of break points though if he is to stand a chance vs Murray on these indoor courts.

Djokovic needs to just win by any margin tonight and he's through. It's a winner takes all in the Roddick Djoko match
 
Actually Djoko just needs to win 1 set tonight. Roddick can only go through with a straight sets victory
 
Finally, the first good match he's played from beginning to end. He was good on serve and wasn't loose and leaking errors like he's been.
 
Seveneric said:
Finally, the first good match he's played from beginning to end. He was good on serve and wasn't loose and leaking errors like he's been.
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Yeah. Was pretty much invincible on serve today barring one or two games where he still managed to hold.

Still needs to improve his play on break points though. Murray will be very very hard in the semis.
 
And his returning, I'm really still not impressed with that yet and it's gonna be a key factor against Murray
 
Yeah it's been quite poor. Some of his play confuses me.

He gets up to break points and even 0-30 on his opponents serve by attackin them and then suddenly he resorts to a lot of chopping and short balls and goes defensive and almost always ends up not taking his chances.

But his serving has improved with each passing set this tournament.
 
Djoko safely through. He wins the first set 6-2.

Roddick is just unbelievably one dimensional. If that serve of his does not work he's just plain rubbish. His serve was firing against Nadal but in the last two matches it's not been the same and he's struggled.
 
Hope Nole wont be too tired to play a good game of tennis against the robot.
 
I don't think he really had to put in any effort against Roddick so he should be fit. Come on Nole!
 
Nadal Murray about to start. Pretty relaxed for this actually. Nadal's had a brilliant year and he's done very well to reach the semis here, on his weakest surface. A win would be great today and if he loses well, it's been a brilliant season. Vamos Rafa!
 
Watching this! I really like the large spaces between courts. Makes it more epic, I feel.
 
Just can't see how Nadal's going to break Murray today. His serve has been unbelievably good till now.
 
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