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2011 ATP World Tour Finals

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Rabbit of Caerbannog

Rabbit of Caerbannog

Premiership Player
Veteran Essendon Board Tipping Champion
Aug 11, 2008
3,605
1,459
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Other Teams
Liverpool
Group A:

1. Novak Djokovic
3. Andy Murray
5. David Ferrer
7. Tomas Berdych

Group B:

2. Rafael Nadal
4. Roger Federer
6. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
8. Mardy Fish

Tough one to call this. You could probably mount a case for any of the top 4, but I'm gonna pick Murray to win the biggest title of his career thus far.

Federer is the defending champion. Tournament gets underway Monday morning our time.
 
I'd be a little surprised if the winner didn't come from Federer/Murray. Hopefully Fed can take it out again, but I'm tipping Murray.
 
Hmmm, looking at the eight guys here:

Novak Djokovic - Clearly has had the best year but it has seemed to catch up with him after New York with not playing Shanghai, losing to Nishikori in Basel and pulling out at the QF stage in Paris. I reckon he will give this a re hot go, after the year he has, he surely would be wanting to win this to give the year a great finish. Just a matter of how the body is holding up.

Rafael Nadal - Completely unknown given he hasn't played since Shanghai where he had that loss to Mayer. Did alright last year and as long as the injuries aren't bothering him, he should be fresh and would have a good shot here.

Andy Murray - Arguably would of been favourite into here before his loss to Bredych in Paris, now I'm not too sure. Courts suit him, time to win a big title Andy...

Roger Federer - Has the best form coming into this, he could take advantage of everybody else's situations and is hungry for the wins, defending champion as well, good chance.

David Ferrer - Mr Solid, had another good year but unless injuries hamper the top guys it's hard to see him pushing them.

Jo-Wilfred Tsonga - Finalist in Paris so some form heading into this but Federer got him again. Would give him a chance against Nadal if plays well and that will be the key obivously.

Tomas Berdych - Beat Andy Murray in Paris so some form heading into WTF and always has the weapons to threaten. Depends how Djokovic plays.

Mardy Fish - Was the goal to make the WTF so he just happy to be here, injury issues as well so can't see him doing much but great to see him, he deserves it.
 

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Yeah, I wasn't expecting Murray to drop that one. Straight sets loss as well, so everything has to go right from here on in if he's to get through to the semis.
 
Murray has been struggling with a groin injury, which would make sense. This is slightly unrelated to this match, but I think I want Murray to win a GS. I'm really starting to feel sorry for him. Hopefully a draw opens up somewhere next year and he can pinch one. Poor bugger cops a lot of crap that he really doesn't deserve IMO.

Also apparently Berdych choked against Nole. Didn't follow the match at all so maybe someone who did could fill us in.
 
Man. If the world's courts weren't all tending towards playing like clay, Federer would absolutely own the head to head record against Nadal. Rafa just can't compete with him on anything that plays differently. I miss the variety we used to get on the Wimby and AO surfaces...
 
federer was in god mode today, i have never seen him play like this against Nadal. Ever! nothing to do with surface or anything the courts are still slow as hell (not sure what amer is talking about). But with todays display he would have beaten peak Nadal.Its such a shame he wasnt able to do it throughout his career.Even last year in the finals he was not consistent enough although he beat Nadal there.I think the bounce is low, this is what hurts Nadal, but seriously..not much he could have done (although he was a bit our of sorts)
 
crowsfan2004 said:
federer was in god mode today, i have never seen him play like this against Nadal. Ever! nothing to do with surface or anything the courts are still slow as hell (not sure what amer is talking about). But with todays display he would have beaten peak Nadal.Its such a shame he wasnt able to do it throughout his career.Even last year in the finals he was not consistent enough although he beat Nadal there.I think the bounce is low, this is what hurts Nadal, but seriously..not much he could have done (although he was a bit our of sorts)
Click to expand...

Consider the part in bold kiddo. :rolleyes:
 
amer said:
Consider the part in bold kiddo. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

the bounce is also low on grass (just marginally higher than indoors) :rolleyes:

Give federer some credit instead of Nadal bashing.He was on God mode today.Nothing could have stopped him, even on clay he would have done Nadal.
 

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crowsfan2004 said:
the bounce is also low on grass (just marginally higher than indoors) :rolleyes:

Give federer some credit instead of Nadal bashing.He was on God mode today.Nothing could have stopped him, even on clay he would have done Nadal.
Click to expand...

Federer was tremendous today. Shame they haven't met on hard courts a little more often.
 
amer said:
Federer was tremendous today. Shame they haven't met on hard courts a little more often.
Click to expand...

I think everyone who is remotely interested in the game knows that meeting 14 times on clay skews the rivalry heavily in Rafa's direction.

Its the greatest shotmaker in history against arguably the greatest retriever and athlete who had and has a game designed to trouble the more talented player. It was always going to test Federer's game and patience to the limit playing Nadal and so it has proved.

We often overlook the impact the way a man's game is set up on how they perform in H2Hs. Nadal's game could have been computer generated to irritate Fed and meeting more often than not on clay exacerbated that advantage.
 
could have, should have, would have.Federer might be able to figure out Nadal finally, but its a bit too late.He only has himself to blame for this.For a genius like him he should have been able to figure out Nadal a lot earlier.No point in hypotheticals, the way he played today he showed he does have it in him to beat Nadal.Why is he not consistent then?

We will see if he can replicate the performance on a higher bouncing surface like AO.On indoors he is still world number 1.
 
crowsfan2004 said:
could have, should have, would have.Federer might be able to figure out Nadal finally, but its a bit too late.He only has himself to blame for this.For a genius like him he should have been able to figure out Nadal a lot earlier.No point in hypotheticals, the way he played today he showed he does have it in him to beat Nadal.Why is he not consistent then?

We will see if he can replicate the performance on a higher bouncing surface like AO.On indoors he is still world number 1.
Click to expand...

Don't worry about it man, it's still been a great rivalry. No point stressing yourself over spilt milk.
 
Was a joy to watch Fed in GOAT mode against Rafa, whose body is looking in poor shape. Fed had 28 winners to 8 UFE's. Nadal had just 4 winners!

Would really love to see Fed win a slam next year and it's looking like it's possible. I wonder if he will be facing Djoko or Nadal in the semis??
 
Just on this event, is it still 3 sets for the semis and 5 for the final? If so, I might be thinking too deep here, but doesn't that throw up the possibility of a player tanking a group match to play the top player from the other group in the semi where it's best of 3 instead of the final where it's best of 5? The top players are more vulnerable in BO3 than BO5. BO5 semis would alleviate this.
 

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I wouldn't be making any slam predictions based on this performance alone. Federer is always in good health (compared to guys like Nadal) at this stage of the year because of his efficient style of play. Plus the conditions in London seem to suit him very well. It's always great to see brilliant attacking tennis triumph over dour defensive tennis though :thumbsu:

Larry the Liquidator said:
Just on this event, is it still 3 sets for the semis and 5 for the final?
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It's best of 3 sets all tournament. Only grand slams and DC are best of 5 these days.
 
I agree that it would be great if Fed could get another slam. I would not mind a Fed-Djokovic AO final in 2012. Obivously Fed wants the Gold in London in singles, but a slam would be the other priority.

Have not been able to watch the match from this morning, hopefully they replay it at some point. Nadal just has not been the player he was of 2010 this year. Will be interesting to see if he can step his game up again, which he has done before.

Masters Series finals and the WTF should be best of 5 sets. Considering its importance, prestige and that it mostly has the best players in the final, it would be great to have best of 5 set matches again. They only changed it a couple of years ago.
 
TimeIsRunningOut said:
I wouldn't be making any slam predictions based on this performance alone. Federer is always in good health (compared to guys like Nadal) at this stage of the year because of his efficient style of play. Plus the conditions in London seem to suit him very well. It's always great to see brilliant attacking tennis triumph over dour defensive tennis though :thumbsu:



It's best of 3 sets all tournament. Only grand slams and DC are best of 5 these days.
Click to expand...


Agreed. Its always nice to see the dancer beat the athlete.
 
Can anyone shed some light as to why Nadal is paying $2.23 to beat Tsonga?

Injuries?
 

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2011 ATP World Tour Finals

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