ATP World Tour Finals Preview

The ATP World Tour finals were officially launched at a hotel on the Thames. The proceedings would have been utterly boring, hadn’t the whole affair been so completely chaotic and even bizarre. It started off with a muddled speech by Adam Helfant as chief executive of the ATP Tour. He elaborated on the completely irrelevant topic of André Agassi’s crystal meth use, coming to the surprising conclusion that nobody is going to do a thing about it. Tell us something new.

The organizers then failed significantly in coaxing the stars out into wind and rain to do a photo shoot in front of the Houses of Parliament. I would have declined as well; the fraudulent atmosphere might be contagious, quite apart from becoming wet and cold. The final straw was the collection of the most intelligent beings on earth, sports journalists at the press conference.  As we know from Wimbledon, they are a rather dim lot, but asking Roger Federer about Thierry Henry? Admittedly he played football with the juniors of FC Basel, but one would expect that there were other experts to ask.

It is unusual for the top seeds to be clumped together, and they are all lodged in a hotel on the Thames. The plan is that they will be conveyed by water taxi to the venue at the O2 arena. After the chaotic start, you might expect that this will be a failure, especially if you add other typically British accomplishments. What better time to stage a strike for the taxi drivers? And it is always possible that the Mayor of Little Brain, Boris Johnson, might close down the Thames because of water or imagined snow.

What can the contestants expect, except to show their best tennis in every match? Roger Federer’s plan is obviously to crown an incredible year with the win of this final tournament. His chances are there, as he comes to the tournament with full batteries. On the mathematical side, he must win at least three matches to retain the number one placement should Rafael Nadal win the tournament with seven wins. But Rafael’s fitness is still in doubt, and he might even struggle to retain his second placement should Novak Djokovic win here.

Novak Djokovic seems to have found the button to press to play top tennis on a consistent basis. He has been trailing he two top seeds for so long one tends to forget that he is only 22 and really just launching his career. With his two wins in the last two tournaments, he also comes loaded with self confidence. He is likely to defend his title from last year in Shanghai. The rest of the gang have equal chances to win or to lose.

Andy Murray must find a way out of his defensive game. This is not the tournament to wait for your opponent to make a fault. Juan Martin Del Potro has to become more consistent in his display of high class tennis, which goes for the other seeds as well. But each of them has the tennis to win over any of the three top seeds.

That Andy Roddick is not here is a real shame, with no disrespect intended towards Robin Soderling. Andy Roddick has the quality and the consistency to win this tournament, but he must look after his body’s needs better in future to last the season. Let’s hope he will make it next year to show what he is really made of.