Ok well now its time for part 3 of the ATP WTF posts that I've been doing, and it will cover the events of day 4 and day 5, so let's get on with it.
Right well starting with Roger Federer who took on David Ferrer in their B group match, which promised to be quite an intruiging one, especially as Ferrer is in great form just now, and came into the word finals having won his biggest title in Paris the week before. And the match itself proved to be a fairly testing one for Roger who faltered on serve in the 1st set gifting Ferrer the chance to beak back, however Fed hung in there to go on and win the set. The 2nd set was far more even keeled with Ferrer pushing Rog to a tiebreak, and Federer was in trouble having been 5-2 down he managed to serve his way to victory with a 6-4, 7-6(5) win. This victory sees Roger safely into the semi finals, and he has managed to do it without even dropping a set so far, and with this form he will be very tough to stop. In the other match of day 4 we had Del Potro take on Janko Tipsarevic, however poor Tipsy was in no great condition, as he clearly struggled on court to get anything going against the big Argentine, as Delpo handed him a bagel in the 1st set. In the 2nd set, Tipsy suffered an early break but he managed to keep it to the single break before Delpo went on to win 6-0, 6-4. So this will see Roger and Delpo play each other next which will prove to be a tough one, and may certainly be Roger's first big test, but I can still see Rog come out on top.
So this brings me onto day 5 (Friday) and first up we had Novak Djokovic who played the big Czeck, Tomas Berdych for a place in the semi finals, and it promised to be quite a tough match, and last year Nole narrowly escaped defeat as he saved a match point against Berdy in a 3 set battle. This year however it proved to be quite different as Nole dominated the big Czeck fella in the 1st set, breaking him twice to take the opening set. In the 2nd set, Berdy managed to tighten up his game, and took the set to a tiebreak, where he went 6-3 up, however he failed to capitalise on his set points as Djoko stormed back and went on to clinch the breaker and the match, and also his place in the semi finals, with a 6-2, 7-6(6) win. So this means that Djokovic is now the winner of Group A, which means he will play the runner up of Group B, which will be determined on Saturday when the concluding Group B matches are played out.
And now we get on to Andy Murray who was aiming to look for his 3rd semi final at the year end championships, and in his way was Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, last year's finalist. However this year things were quite different for the Muzza, with last year Andy failed to make it past the round robin stage, and this year we had Tsonga who had a very slim chance of staying in the tournament, but only if he could beat Andy in straight sets would he go through. As for Andy all he needed to do was win a set against Tsonga in order to qualify for the semi finals, this was mostly thanks to Novak for beating Berdych in straight sets (its very confusing this round robin format it has to be said!). So all that confusing stuff aside, as for the match well in the 1st set it was very much one-way traffic, with Andy in full control, playing aggressive tennis and dominating a flailing Tsonga, who made a host of unforced errors, and he went on to secure his semi final qualification by taking the first set. In the 2nd set, Tsonga went a break down but at 4-3, with Andy serving to make it 5-3, Andy played a sloppy service game, letting Tsonga level it 4-4, and the matchplay quality rose for the next few games where Tsonga brought aggressive serve and volley to the proceedings. Tsonga also nearly secured the 2nd set, when Andy faced a break point on his serve at 5-6, but a loose return from Tsonga saved it, and Andy went on to hold serve and go into a tiebreak, in which Andy took control and cemented his semi final spot with an ace, to win 6-2, 7-6(3).
Sooooooo this sees the completion of the round robin Group A matches with Andy having qualified as the runner-up of the group, who will go on to play the winner of Group B, which depending could be either Roger or Del Potro, but that will be decided on Saturday. Whichever way it goes, it will be a tough test for Andy to negotiate, although the better of the two options would be to play Delpo as he has never won this event, although he reached the final back in 2009, and he has an excellent head to head over Del Potro with a 5-1 record. However I think we would all love to see another Andy vs Roger showdown, although if they do meet I would really have to side with Roger winning it, as his record at this event speaks for itself, having won the ATP WTF tite six times already, and he has been the defending champion the last two years running in London. However Andy will have his chances and he has already beaten Federer in a big match this year at the Olympic gold medal final, so its not beyond the realms of possibility that he could beat the Swiss fella, but we will just have to wait and see how Saturday and Sunday pans out!
Right so that is it for now, we are getting down to the business end of the tournament now, and I will report back on Sunday with more results.
Till then bye the now!
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