The 2017 tennis season was full of surprises, with Cilic reaching the final at Wimbledon and Anderson in New York. An unexpected final between two rookies at the Masters is a fitting end.
LONDON – At the beginning of this week’s ATP Finals, nobody could have anticipated a final between Grigor Dimitrov and David Goffin. Many expected a new exciting chapter in the rivalry between Roger Federer – who was the overwhelming favorite – and Rafael Nadal, despite a few doubts concerning the Spaniard due to his below-par indoor record and his recent physical issues that forced him to withdraw from the Paris-Bercy Masters a couple of weeks ago.
The 2017 season started with a bang when Federer and Nadal, who were certainly not expected to come back at the highest level straightaway, stormed into the Australian Open final and entertained us with a five-set classic. After unexpectedly capturing the Australian Open title, the Fed-express went on a roll dominating the first two Masters 1000 events of the season in Indian Wells and Miami.
After showing some good form in the first three months of the year, Nadal’s dominance on the European clay was instead more than expected. Federer decided to skip the entire clay court season in order to safeguard his body for the rest of the year and he eventually ended up capturing his eighth Wimbledon against surprising finalist Marin Cilic, while Nadal capped off an incredible Grand Slam season with his third US Open title once again against another unexpected finalist Kevin Anderson, who had previously never made it past the quarters of a Slam.
Besides the Roger-Rafa dominance in the Grand Slams, a few fresh faces started to emerge at Masters 1000 level: Zverev won the titles in Rome and Montreal, while Dimitrov captured Cincinnati. In the absence of Murray, Djokovic and Wawrinka, it is not surprising that the young guns took advantage of the situation. On the other hand, it is very surprising that Goffin and Dimitrov managed to reach the final at the ATP Finals in their first appearance.
Goffin reached the final after knocking out his idol Roger Federer, against whom he had previously lost six matches capturing only two sets. In an absolute semifinal shocker, the Belgian showed great mental strength and staged an impressive comeback after dropping the first set. While leading 5-4 in the final set, Goffin stepped up to the line and served an ace that delivered the final blow to the Swiss maestro. The Belgian served out the match with conviction.
Federer didn’t seem particularly upset about the loss and showed his class with long post-match interviews that were conducted in three languages. At the of the day, Goffin is one of his best friends on the tour and the two often practice together.
At this point, Federer won’t be able to surpass Nadal at the top of the world rankings in the early months of the 2018 season: He will have to defend titles at the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami. We will have to wait until the clay court season to see a potential threat to Rafa’s throne, when the Spaniard will have to defend plenty of big titles himself.
Goffin lost four of the five matches that he played against Dimitrov, but sometimes losing to a player in the round-robin is almost an advantage. In the past, round-robin results were often overturned by the final. On Saturday Goffin finished his semifinal match early in the afternoon, while Dimitrov’s match ended quite late and the Bulgarian has yet to meet the press at 11:30 PM. This will certainly play to Goffin’s advantage.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com )
