ATP Tour Finals – Day One
Posted on 22 November 2010 by Rob
On Sunday the ATP Tour Finals tennis tournament began at the O2 Arena Greenwich. The end-of-season tournament comprises of the 8 best ranked men on the ATP Tour, which this year again includes Great Britain’s Andy Murray. The tournament is conducted in a round-robin format of 2 groups of 4 players. The player ranked 1st in the ATP Tour is automatically put into Group A, whilst the player ranked 2nd is put into Group B. After this the other 6 players are drawn into the 2 groups at random.
In Group A Rafael Nadal was joined by Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick and Tomas Berdych whilst Group B consists of Roger Federer, Robin Soderling, Andy Murray and David Ferrer. Each player then plays one match against each of their group opponents and the 2 players in each group with the best records after the group stages go through to the semi-finals. The winner of Group A will meet the runner-up of Group B and vice-versa.
Sunday saw the start of the group stages, Group B specifically. Up first was Brit Andy Murray, who faced Swedish 4th seed Robin Soderling in front of a sell-out 17,500 crowd. Cheered on by the home crowd Murray signalled his intent early by breaking Soderling’s serve in the 3rd game to make it 2-1 in the 1st set before holding easily to consolidate the break at 3-1. 2 games later Murray took advantage of Soderling’s weak 2nd serves to take another of the Swede’s service games for a double break at 5-2. Murray then wrapped up the set easily on serve with a deft drop shot for a 6-2 scoreline. Last year in this competition he was denied a semi-final place due to percentage of games won so easy sets like today’s 1st will help stats like that if it’s a tight finish for 2nd place.
The 2nd set stayed on serve until the 7th game, in which Soderling was serving. Until then his serve had been rock solid in the set but he quickly went 0-40 down to hand Murray 3 break points. A nice forehand volley saved the first but the pressure told and an error gave Murray the next point and the break to put him up 4-3. Murray’s 10th ace of the match helped him win the next game on serve to make Soderling serve to stay in the match at 5-3, which he duly did to love. Murray was absent during that game and there was a feeling that he was holding back for his service game to win the match. 30-0 comes after a Soderling error at the net and Murray quickly makes it 3 match points, the Scot can’t take the first but Soderling hits long on the 2nd to give Murray a 6-2, 6-4 victory and the lead in Group B after one match.
The 2nd singles match of the day was the other game in Group B between World No.2 Roger Federer and David Ferrer. Federer came into the match with a 10-0 record against Ferrer during his career and showed how he’d earned that record in the first games of the match. After a hold to love in the 1st game he broke Ferrer after coming back from 40-30 down. This break was then consolidated despite the game going to deuce. Any signs of Ferrer getting back into the set were quashed as Federer took a 4-0 lead, breaking the Spaniard again to 15. The players then swapped service breaks to make it 5-1 before the Swiss maestro won the 1st set on his serve, with the help of an ace at 15-30. A 6-1 win in the 1st set even better than Murray’s 6-2 effort earlier in the day.
In the 2nd set Ferrer put up more of a fight, winning two of his service games before Federer finally broke through at 3-2, the 2nd seed then held serve to make it 4-2. Federer was able to win his next 2 services games with little problem to finish off a convincing victory, one that puts his record against Ferrer at 11-0 during his career.
By virtue of his 6-1 victory in the 1st set Federer sits atop Group B after one round of matches, his game record being 12-5 to Murray’s 12-6. The two will face each other on Tuesday, in what will certainly be a great match. Monday sees the start of Group A, with Rafael Nadal facing Andy Roddick after Novak Djokovic faces Tomas Berdych. As ever these matches will be covered by SportyLondoners a few hours after they finish.
