Right OK now we get onto the next part of my coverage of the ATP World Tour Finals which will cover days 6 and 7 which sees the final rubber rounds played out and the semi finals. So let's get a move on and have a look at them...
Right starting with Day 6 and the first match of the day was between Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro in a match that promised to be a real classic encounter. And the match itself more than lived up to expectations as Rog and Delpo battled it out on the centre court infront of 17000 plus crowd who were enthralled by some incredible tennis. And it was Delpo that got off to the better start as he broke Roger in the first set twice, but Roger managed to get one of the breaks back before Delpo served out the set. The 2nd set saw Roger having to battle from behind once again as he went a break down but he managed to wrestle his way back and pushed the set to a tiebreak where Roger dominated the play. In the 3rd set Roger once again was forced to come from a break down to eventually level the scores and Rog got a break of his own on Delpo's serve and finally went on to serve out the match to reach another semi final at the o2 with a remarkable 4-6, 7-6, 7-5 victory.
This really was one of the most entertaining matches of the tournament and throughout Roger looked down and out and its testament to his incredible fighting spirit and experience that he was able to come through it. It also marked his second win over a Delpo this year after beating the big guy for the first time in their previous meetings until Paris just two weeks ago, which sees that Roger is starting to get his game back on form which is good to see. And this also set up a mouth watering semi final clash between Roger and Rafa which would see the two greatest rivals in the sport face each other again, but more on that soon.
Next up in the evening match Novak Djokovic faced off Richard Gasquet in his last rubber match before the semis. And despite Nole's assertive dominance over the Frenchman, Gasquet came out strong and played some wonderful and varied tennis for the crowd against a rather fatigued looking Djokovic. And Gasquet after dropping the opening set in the breaker went on to nab the 2nd set before Nole went on to close out the spirited fight from Gasquet with a break in the 3rd to seal his 20th match win in a row with a hard fought 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 win. This was one good last hurrahh from Gasquet who has failed to win a match this year at the o2 but he has proven that he is back on true form again especially as he has managed to get himeself back in the top 10 this year as well reaching the semis of the US Open final, things are looking bright for the Frenchman. As for Nole it shows just how damn good he is that even able to fight through fatigue to win and given that he knows a thing or two about winning streaks, it looks like this one won't be ending anytime soon.
So this brings me onto day 7, which had two potentially cracking semi final clashes in prospect as first up we had two legends of the game face each other, Roger and Rafa in what promised to be a mouth watering encounter. However it didn't quite end up that way as Roger suffered from another case of unforced errors on both sides, particular his backhand, and despite tight 2st set, Roger faded badly in the 2nd which let Rafa grab the win in 7-5, 6-3. The match itself had some good moments and some vintage flashes of the old Roger, but in the end Rafa proved to be just too consistent and that made the difference.
So this sees the end of Roger's season in 2013, which hasn't been kind to him and has easily been the worst season of his career for over 10 years in which he has failed to win another grand slam and fell even further back sustaining tough early round defeats at Wimbledon and the US Open. Roger also only managed to secure one title this year as he won the Gerry Webber Open in Halle, prior to Wimbledon. But despite that Roger still managed to finish fairly strong this season in reaching the finals of Basel, and the semis of Paris and London, and his level has started to pick up again and hopefully in 2014 he will come back stronger and ready to take on the challenges that lie ahead.
Which brings me onto the night match which was between Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka, who already this year have had two epic battles in the slams at the Australian and the US Open, both eventually won by Djokovic. But this match proved not to be of the same calibre, but despite that it was still a very entertaining encounter as Stan did his best against an almost invincible Nole, who just kept getting everything back into play, and with Wawrinka hitting a brick wall time and time again. And in the end Nole breezed his way to victory as he broke Stan to win in 6-3, 6-3 to reach his 3rd ATP world tour finals finale.
While the match was a brief one it still had some great rallies from both players and despite his loss, Stan still showed some of the incredible form that has brought him to the foreground of men's tennis this year. And without a doubt Stan Wawrinka really has announced himself as a great player this year, which was spearheaded by his amazing fight in his 4th round match against Nole at the Australian Open an should he continue that form he will no doubt pose an even bigger threat next year. As for Novak well this match saw him put aside his fatigue from the previous Gasquet match and come out razor sharp as he played some of his best tennis to dismiss Stan and there is no doubt that he is looking really good to win the title again.
So that's it for now, and the final is set between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, which promises to be a great one and I will cover that in the next post which is just coming right up.....!
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