World Tour Finals Thread - Match & Prediction Thread

[Guest]

First topic message reminder :

So the ATPs premier showpiece event hits the O2 on Sunday. The sixth showing at the O2 and yielded only 3 different winners. Very interesting this year. 3 virgin qualifiers in Cillic, Raonic and Nishikori. Can we see a new winner? Can Nishikori and Raonic win the biggest title of their careers to date? Federer will have an eye on the DC like his compatriot Wawrinka, though he is woefully out of form of late. Has Murray much left in the tank to win his first title here at the O2? Can Berdych do a Davydenko and strike out of nowhere? Will it be a routine Djokovic victory?

For me the 2 that qualify from each group will be:

Group A

1) Djokovic
2) Raonic

Group B

1) Murray
2) Federer

Djokovic/Murray final

Winner: Djokovic

[kingraf]

Stans first serve has been appalling on that side of the court. Closer to the baseline than service

[Jahu]

Come on Fesddd keep it up

[bogbrush]

Both very tight.

[kingraf]

Jesus Stan find a first serve.

[kingraf]

fourth match point

[bogbrush]

1st

[kingraf]

My feed is gone!!

[Jahu]

Omgggggg

[bogbrush]

Tough on Stan.

Federer completely screwed for tomorrow.

[Guest]

That was pure grit from Fed.

Gotta feel for Stan. Heartbreak for him.

[Silver]

Tough on Stan.

Federer completely screwed for tomorrow.

+1

Great comeback, yet another match this year with MPs saved by Federer. But he's stuffed for tomorrow.

Poor Stan

[Jahu]

Fes takes it, somehow.

Stan melted a little, it was his match big time.

Fed to win tomorrow btw, to all you negative people

[HM Murdock]

Well played Roger.

Now get yourself off to bed, you've got a match tomorrow!

That loss will haunt Stan. 4 match points, 2 BPs at 5-5, couldn't take any.

[kemet]

Stan really played the better tennis (imo) over three sets.

Stan the Man really choked

Roger's return game will not be good enough for him to prevail in tomorrow's final

Novak must be salivating....

[temporary21]

That hurts that will affect stan for the dc

[summerblues]

Congrats Roger but poor Stan; he looked the better player for most of the match.  Roger will need to play much better tomorrow to have a chance.

[bogbrush]

Methinks a little bridge building needed for the DC. What was it between Stan & the Fed camp near the end?

[Silver]

The DC dynamic will be fascinating after this. Of all matches, they just had to have a thriller right before the team final...

This really does suck for Stan, though. He was the better player.

[Jahu]

Edberg carrying Feds bags, that must feel very special

[temporary21]

I have my matrix 3 final... but I feel nothing.
Thats crushing, Stan deserved that soo much more, now hes crushed... and injured

[biugo]

Edberg still is the true holder of Edberg trophy

[bogbrush]

Difficult to see Federer being able to bring much tomorrow, he'd need to play ultra-attacking to not just fade.

[summerblues]

I rooted for Fed but this is one of those rare days where I am quite sorry for the other guy to not have won.  Stan is a nice bloke with a nice game, a loss like this can be crushing.  On the other hand, he did have some bad ones against Nole prior to the 2014 AO and they did not crush him, so hopefully he can take the positives from this.

I have not been expecting him to do well in 2015 but will be happy to be proven wrong.

[Guest]

Fed didn't play well at all but Stan also didn't let him dictate.

I don't think Fed hit a single FH winner off the baseline.

[laverfan]

This bodes well for SUI for DC, IMHO.

[Jahu]

Fed in 3 tomorrow.

[MrInvisible]

Well, finally in this disappointing tournament we got a real humdinger of a match. Great to watch the all-court play and single-handed backhands from both players. Great fighting qualities from Federer to prevail, and a sweet volley to win it at the end. Wawrinka could easily have won this - I feel he did the wrong tactics on the big points towards end of 3rd set - too many serve-volleys on match-points and other big points. Normally Wawrinka is a player who judges his net approaches pretty well, but on this occasion, he overused the tactic.

Obviously Stan will be gutted but given the twinge he felt on his leg towards end of the match, perhaps its not such a bad thing he's not playing tomorrow and has a bit longer to recover for Davis Cup final.

I fully expect Djokovic to beat Federer but would be happy with a decent competitive match and Federer going down fighting playing good attacking tennis.

[Silver]

Federer will go down fighting, that is guaranteed. Let's hope neither of them are injured, the Swiss team would fall to ashes if either of them are out!

I think Stan might've gone for the S&V just to remove a bit of pressure from himself - less chance to miss from the baseline, and Federer's passing had been poor all set. But he'd been dominating from the baseline already, so it made little sense!

Fed came up with the goods at that TB though, some cracking net play to stave off defeat.

[summerblues]

I expect tomorrow's match to look quite different; I think Fed will try to be ultra-aggressive (and I think he would have even if today's match had not been so tiring), so that may perhaps reduce the impact of fatigue, as there may not be all too many long rallies.

That said, I expect Nole to win.

[Jahu]

Djoko will feed Fed with better balls. Stan was crushing it.

[lags72]

No shortage of grit there from Federer .....takes some nerve to save all those MP's. Stan did wilt a little with the match in his hand, but equally Federer came up with some bold play just when needed.

Stan was magical at times, such great defence and so many inch-perfect winners. He surely must have thought he had done enough after that early break in the decider.

They will both be affected. On this showing, Federer won't have enough to trouble Djokovic tomorrow. Far too many untidy errors, and the serve - other than some very occasional exceptions - was well below par. And Stan's confidence & morale will have taken a big knock just ahead of the DC.

[temporary21]

Djokovic will need to pass better than Shanghai. Of he does he should win in 2 sets. That would be the correct result in my eyes. He's the best and he deserves the title for the way he's gloriously destroyed everyone in front of him. He's been amazing to watch

[temporary21]

I was hoping for an epic . However considering the much lower level federer showed here and how long it took to get past stan he'll either pull off a miracle tomorrow and breeze it. Or he will be crushed

[Henman Bill]

Hi everyone, Well that was probably the match of the tournament by a country mile. Decent quality, and great excitement, balanced on a knife edge for much of the match with Warwinka leading. Tension in a good way.

I thought they both played very well, Warwinka above his normal/recent level. Interesting to see him much more the aggressor. I think Federer's eye was not quite in today for the really agressive shots and he had to hold back a little and rely on good defence, variety and the odd error and nerves off his opponent. Ultimately, I think he won the match on being rock solid mentally at the big moments, you could not fault it. First match point, deep and to the net, job done.

I also think Federer's reaction at the net greeting Warwinka was really classy, no celebration at all.

Yes it's a gutting loss for Warwinka but if you were him would you not have rather had the MC final, that was perhaps a bigger match, especially with Djokovic waiting in the final. I could not see Warwinka sustaining that level. I wouldn't feel too sorry for him, he would have settled for this year in a heartbeat and he does get to go home and cuddle his partner and his slam trophy and so on.

I think some of the Federer fans here are slightly overstating the physicality factor which will come into play in the final. The combination of playing second and having the longer match is never a good one, especially when you're already second favourite. But it's worth noting that Federer took an early exit in Paris, a rest week between Paris and London, and breezed through his group matches. And over today and tomorrow he will probably be on court less time than Djokovic and Nadal managed in one match once at the Australian Open. I would be more worried for Federer at the Davis Cup than here, that second best of 5 match (if it gets that far) could be where it catches up with him a bit.

That being said, I don't understand with that rest week why they still started the tournament on Sunday, especially since all of the players had to be in town Friday at the latest for a photo shoot on a boat. Why not start the tournament on a Saturday where more fans can watch the matches on TV - which would also ensure a couple of extra sell our crowds - and then give the players a rest day. Probably on the Friday after the group stage.

[Henman Bill]

The other key factor was the Warwinka first serve. It was very potent to start with, Federer was struggling to get it back, including several body serves. However in the second half of the match he just wasn't getting the first serves in which made a difference for sure.

[Silver]

Nice post HB, good summary. What time was the match on for you, locally?

I also think Federer's reaction at the net greeting Warwinka was really classy, no celebration at all.

It really was, considering how great the escape was. He did the same thing with Murray, zero celebration whatsoever - in both matches he almost looked gutted to have won in such circumstances.

[FedsFan]

Tough on Stan.

Federer completely screwed for tomorrow.

+1

Great comeback, yet another match this year with MPs saved by Federer. But he's stuffed for tomorrow.

Poor Stan

I know! Fed is definitely stuffed for tomorrow. He was doing a press conference at 1am! Recovery time is not going to be enough whereas Novak will have had 26 hours btwn matches to Fed's 19 hours plus 6 years age gap equals a hammering just as Cilic did to Fed after he played that 5 setter vs Monfils.

[Henman Bill]

Really think in this scenario the press conference in this situation should be done the next day maybe about lunch time at Federer's hotel. Or a shortened one pulled forward to enable him to get out of the O2 within 30-40 min of the match finishing.

Time difference from Chile to UK is three hours at the moment although it can be four or five hours at other times of the year. After so many years of attending the world tour finals, I never have to look up the match times, except a quick check for the final. Yesterday's match would have been just after 5pm here, while being just after 8pm in the UK.

In practice I've watched less because of the time difference this year. Yesterday was the only one I actually sat down and watched the whole match from the warm up on. And just because of a family event I skipped the semi, but didn't know which one had been scheduled second until I turned the TV on.

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