ATP Tour Finals – Day Two
Posted on 23 November 2010 by Rob
On the 2nd day of the week long ATP Tour Finals tournament at London’s O2 Arena the sell-out crowd again witnessed some fine tennis. On Sunday it was the turn of Group B and Andy Murray, who won his match against Robin Soderling in straight sets and today it was the opening matches in Group A. This group features World No.1 Rafael Nadal and World No.3 Novak Djokovic, along with Andy Roddick and Tomas Berdych.
The first singles match on court was World No.3 Novak Djokovic against World No.6 Tomas Berdych. Berdych earned his place in the end-of-season championships with a fantastic year on all surfaces, including a run to the final of Wimbledon, the semi-finals of the French Open and the final of the Miami Masters. Djokovic held a 3-1 head-to-head advantage going into the game, with the Serbs only defeat being in this year’s Wimbledon, that Berdych so nearly won.
Berdych elected to serve first and it seemed that the nerves may have got to him in his first appearance at this tournament as he served up an erratic, error strewn game starting with a double-fault. An ace got him back to 15-30 but an error combined with another double-fault handed Djokovic the first break of serve on a platter. Berdych was unlucky not to break back immediately as he forced deuce, but Djokovic was able to fight back and consolidate his early break. The Serbian was then able to hold serve convincingly for 3 games in a row before at 3-5 Berdych produced a sloppy service game to give Djokovic the break needed to win the set, 6-3.
Djokovic didn’t let up in his quest for an easy, straight sets victory and took his first service game of the 2nd set despite being down 0-30, thanks to more errors from Berdych, who later admitted it wasn’t his finest performance of the year. This was shown again in the 2nd game of the set as Djokovic quickly raced out to a 0-30 lead, before being pegged back. However, the Serb wasn’t to be denied and took the next 2 points to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the set, which he then consolidated by holding serve to love for a 3-0 scoreline.
Berdych managed to hold his serve throughout the rest of the set but wasn’t able to force a dent in the formidable Djokovic serve. At 5-3 on the Djokovic serve Berdych managed to get back to 40-30 but another error, something that summed up his day, gave the match to Djokovic, who played some fantastic tennis when needed to in a 6-3, 6-3 victory.
Whilst the first match of the day was a slight blowout the same couldn’t be said of the second. Rafa Nadal faced the big-serving American Andy Roddick. Nadal looked on top in the first game after taking a 15-40 lead, however Roddick responded with two excellent serves to pull it back to deuce before a lovely, wide serve that Nadal was simply unable to return won the game.
This proved an early momentum boost for Roddick, who then raced out to a 0-40 lead on Nadal’s first service game thanks to a double fault. Rafa’s able to pull back 1 of the 3 break points but another double fault gives Roddick a vital break of serve, something that he rarely gives away himself.
After a consolidation of the break to go 3-0 up Roddick was in prime position to win the set behind his killer serve and this is exactly what happened. Nadal managed to get his house in order without troubling the powerful Roddick, who took the first set 6-3 in 49 minutes, after a service hold to love. At the start of the second set Nadal looked on the ropes at 1-1 and serving, when he gave up 2 break points to Roddick, who duly converted the first to take a 2-1 lead.
However, Nadal managed something that very few players can when he immediately broke Roddick’s serve with some help via a double fault. What followed this was some majestic serving to take the game to a tiebreak at 6-6. Nadal manages to get to 6-3 for 3 set points but then wobbles and loses 2 set points thanks to a 138mph serve from Roddick for the 2nd. However, the Spaniard was able to take the last of his set points to send the match to a deciding set.
You sensed at this point that the momentum was entirely in Nadal’s favour and it seemed only a matter of time before Roddick’s serve was broken. This happened in the 5th game when Nadal had a clear opportunity at 15-40, the Majorcan took the chance at the first attempt and consolidated with a service hold in the very next game to take a 4-2 lead. From then on it was a question of whether Rafa was able to hold serve and he managed to do this twice with relative easy for a 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 victory.
This means that after one set of matches in Group A Novak Djokovic is in 1st place thanks to his straight sets victory with Nadal in 2nd. On Tuesday it’s back to Group B as 1st faces 2nd in Roger Federer and Andy Murray, whilst in the late game Soderling and Ferrer battle, knowing that the loser will be out of this year’s ATP Tour Finals.
