ATP World Tour Finals

[Sir David Gray]

The final event of the 2014 tennis season started today and Andy Murray is in action right now in his first group match against Kei Nishikori.

Things are looking good for Murray right now as he's broken early to take a 3-2 lead in the first set.

Roger Federer v Milos Raonic is on this evening.

[Sir David Gray]

Spoke too soon.

Nishikori wins the first set, 6-4.

[Sir David Gray]

Nishikori wins 6-4 6-4.

Very poor performance by Murray.

[Golden Bear]

Andy seemed content to pump the ball back today whereas his opponent was going for the outright winners and thoroughly deserved his victory.

[Sir David Gray]

Great start for Roger Federer this evening as he takes the opening set 6-1 against Milos Raonic.

3-3 in the second set.

[Sir David Gray]

Federer wins 6-1 7-6.

Raonic was much better in the second set but he played a horrible tiebreak, losing it 7-0.

[Sir David Gray]

Not much of a contest on day two with two very one-sided matches.

Stan Wawrinka hammered Tomas Berdych 6-1 6-1 in under an hour in the first match and then Novak Djokovic beat Marin Cilic by the same scoreline in the second match.

Andy Murray's back in action at around 8pm this evening against Milos Raonic. With both players losing their opening matches on Sunday, it will pretty much be a must win match for both of them.

Murray doesn't have a great history against Raonic. They have met four times before and Raonic has won three of them, including a win earlier this year in the Indian Wells Masters.

The first match tomorrow sees Roger Federer play Kei Nishikori.

[Golden Bear]

I'm not a tennis expert by any means but am I right in saying that the playing surface looks particularly slow in this arena?

[Sir David Gray]

Murray wins 6-3 7-5.

It makes things interesting for Thursday in Murray's match against Federer as tonight's result means that Federer has yet to qualify.

[xyz23jc]

Murray wins 6-3, 7-5! Yassss

[Golden Bear]

Murray wins 6-3 7-5.

It makes things interesting for Thursday in Murray's match against Federer as tonight's result means that Federer has yet to qualify.

I thought the commentators said that Federer was already thru?

[West Upper]

Murray wins 6-3 7-5.

It makes things interesting for Thursday in Murray's match against Federer as tonight's result means that Federer has yet to qualify.

Will be at the 02 for that match, Looking Forward to it!

[Sir David Gray]

I thought the commentators said that Federer was already thru?

That's what they said on Sky but the BBC report on Federer's match this afternoon says otherwise.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/30009624

" The Swiss won 6-3 6-2 and could qualify for the last four on Tuesday depending on the result of the late match between Andy Murray and Milos Raonic.

Federer, 33, needs Raonic to win or Murray to prevail in three sets.

If not, the six-time champion will need to secure his progress in his final Group B match against Murray."

Murray obviously won in straight sets tonight so that article suggests he's not quite safe.

I'm away to get my calculator out and I'll be back shortly! :greengrin

[Sir David Gray]

That's what they said on Sky but the BBC report on Federer's match this afternoon says otherwise.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/tennis/30009624

" The Swiss won 6-3 6-2 and could qualify for the last four on Tuesday depending on the result of the late match between Andy Murray and Milos Raonic.

Federer, 33, needs Raonic to win or Murray to prevail in three sets.

If not, the six-time champion will need to secure his progress in his final Group B match against Murray."

Murray obviously won in straight sets tonight so that article suggests he's not quite safe.

I'm away to get my calculator out and I'll be back shortly! :greengrin

Right, I've just done a few calculations and I believe that the BBC is correct in saying that Roger Federer has technically still not qualified.

I've created a hypothetical scenario here of;

Murray beats Federer 6-0 6-0 and Nishikori beats Raonic 6-0 6-0.

That would put Federer, Murray and Nishikori all on two wins and all of them would have won four sets over the three matches as well.

It would then come down to percentage of games won and with those scores, Federer would have the lowest percentage of games won out of those three players and therefore he would be eliminated and Murray and Nishikori would go through.

I believe I'm right in saying that Federer only needs to win a set against Murray to finish top of the group though and that would also put Murray out if Nishikori beats Raonic in straight sets.

[Sir David Gray]

The second round of matches in Group A were played today and there were wins for Tomas Berdych and Novak Djokovic.

Berdych beat Marin Cilic 6-3 6-1 and Djokovic hammered Stan Wawrinka 6-3 6-0.

Despite only dropping five games in his first two matches, Djokovic still has some work to do to confirm qualification.

If Wawrinka beats Cilic in straight sets and Berdych beats Djokovic, also in straight sets, then Djokovic may be eliminated.

I think that's highly unlikely though. I think that if Wawrinka beats Cilic then he and Djokovic will qualify as I can't see Djokovic losing.

Tomorrow sees the final round of matches in Group B played and Murray plays Federer at approximately 8pm after Nishikori plays Raonic at 2pm.

[Hibee87]

Nishokiri looks to be strolling the deciding set against ferrer (who was drafted in because ranic pulled out injured)

This mean that murray must beat Federer in straight sets to progress, dont see that happening unfortunatly

[DaveF]

Nishokiri looks to be strolling the deciding set against ferrer (who was drafted in because ranic pulled out injured)

This mean that murray must beat Federer in straight sets to progress, dont see that happening unfortunatly

oh dear :greengrin

[scoopyboy]

Andy is struggling big time and will be lucky to win a game.

6-0, 2-0 at the moment.

Federer brilliant.

[DaveF]

6-0, 5-0 and Murray serving to avoid a double doughnut.

[DaveF]

:woohoo: He's won a game :woohoo:

[Pretty Boy]

Wonder if a change of coach from Murray may be announced soon.

He's obviously played well in the last few weeks but watching him this year he seems to have reverted back to his pre Lendl days. Mouthing off at his box, showing his frustration and shouting and moaning at himself.

[Sir David Gray]

Really shocked by that result.

I came in at 9 o'clock tonight, expecting to see some of the second set and then a possible third set. To check Sky Sports and see that Federer won with the loss of only one game is ridiculous.

I hope Murray isn't affected too much after tonight but a result like that can take a long time to come back from.


Wonder if a change of coach from Murray may be announced soon.

He's obviously played well in the last few weeks but watching him this year he seems to have reverted back to his pre Lendl days. Mouthing off at his box, showing his frustration and shouting and moaning at himself.

It will be interesting to see how he does in Australia in January. He's had a pretty disappointing year, by his high standards, and I think he'll be glad to see the back of 2014.

I have doubts about how long his relationship with Mauresmo is going to last to be honest. It's clear that he's missing Lendl's presence in his box. I think he was a calming influence on Murray and, as you say, he's now back to losing his cool after missing easy shots and shouting and swearing as well which was largely cut out when Lendl was with him.

For him to win only one game tonight is disgraceful, unless there was some injury that no-one knows about. Even if Roger Federer was playing well, there is no way he should be losing 6-0 6-1 to anyone.

I just hope he goes away for the next 6-8 weeks and thinks about what he really wants to achieve in the rest of his career. He's more than capable of being near the top of the world rankings and winning Grand Slams as he's already shown. He just needs to get back to basics and go from there.

[heretoday]

I'm watching Novak v Berdych on the telly. Both players are in black plus court officials It's like a funeral out there!

[Sir David Gray]

Djokovic beats Berdych 6-2 6-2 and therefore confirms that he'll finish 2014 as the world number one.

He also tops his group and will play Kei Nishikori tomorrow in the semi finals.

The other semi final place in Group A is still up for grabs though and will be decided later tonight when Stan Wawrinka faces Marin Cilic.

Both players can still qualify, as well as Berdych and the runner up in the group will play Roger Federer in the semis.

[Sir David Gray]

One set all between Cilic and Wawrinka but the semis are decided now as Wawrinka has now qualified after winning a set.

Semis;

Djokovic v Nishikori
Federer v Wawrinka

[Sir David Gray]

Good match on just now between Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka.

Into a final set and Wawrinka is a break up at 3-2.

The winner plays Novak Djokovic in the final tomorrow after he beat Kei Nishikori earlier in three sets.

[Sir David Gray]

Federer wins 4-6 7-5 7-6 after saving four match points.

Best match of the week by a mile.

Really looking forward to the final tomorrow and it's fitting that the final match of 2014 will be played between the two best players in the world.

Hoping that Federer can do it but I think that the length of tonight's match will give Djokovic the edge and I think he'll win.

[Pretty Boy]

Federer pulls out of the final as he 'is not match fit'.

Djokovic to play Murray in an exhibution instead.

[Sir David Gray]

Federer pulls out of the final as he 'is not match fit'.

Djokovic to play Murray in an exhibution instead.

I feared the worst ever since Mark Petchey announced to the crowd that there was some "significant news" to tell them about regarding the singles final after the doubles presentation was made.

Really disappointing news but I suppose Federer has to do what's right for him and his body. He's 33 now so it was always going to be difficult for him to recover so soon after the kind of match he was involved in last night against Wawrinka.

He has the Davis Cup final next week as well which is one of the few tournaments that he's never won in his career so he'll want to give himself the best possible chance of winning that one.

Huge blow for those who have tickets for the final but at least the ATP have done well with their contingency plan and brought in Murray to play Djokovic and then they're having a doubles match between Murray, Tim Henman, Pat Cash and John McEnroe.

[Hibs Class]

Federer pulls out of the final as he 'is not match fit'.

Djokovic to play Murray in an exhibution instead.


Shame. Thought Federer showed class in going onto court himself to explain to the spectators and to apologise.

[Sir David Gray]

Shame. Thought Federer showed class in going onto court himself to explain to the spectators and to apologise.

:agree: The guy oozes class.

I think it's fairly obvious that he was genuinely upset that he couldn't compete today. At this stage in his career, he can't know if that's the last time he'll have the opportunity to play in such a big match.

He wouldn't have pulled out unless he had a very good reason.