At the ongoing ATP Finals in London, Roger Federer is the only Grand Slam champion remaining in the competition. The lack of superstars is certainly affecting the tournament. Besides Roger, Grigor Dimitrov is probably the player with the biggest talent and personality.
LONDON – On Tuesday night Roger Federer booked his semifinal spot at the ATP Finals with a three-set win over Sasha Zverev. This is great news for the tournament organizers whose hopes for a Federer-Nadal blockbuster match were shattered when the Spaniard withdrew from the event with a knee injury on Monday. “Fedal” materialized four times this year with Roger prevailing in all four occasions and a fifth battle between the two legends at the season-ending championships would have been an extraordinary event for the entire tennis world.
Federer came into the ATP Finals with only four losses in 2017: One of those losses came at the hands of Sasha Zverev in the Canadian Open final during the summer. Roger got revenge against the young German with a see-saw win in the second round-robin match of their group. The Swiss maestro captured his 51st win of the season and advanced to the semifinals which will be played on Saturday. On Thursday Roger will play an irrelevant match against Marin Cilic, who is already eliminated from the competition after dropping his first two round-robin matches.
Roger’s presence in the final stages is key for the credibility of the tournament. After Nadal’s withdrawal and Cilic’s elimination, Federer is the only Grand Slam champion remaining in the competition. This is one of the poorest editions of the ATP Finals in terms of great champions battling for the title. Perhaps a few younger contestants will eventually become great champions and there is certainly a changing of the guard looming all over this year’s event, but when 12 of the top 20 best players in the world are sidelined with injuries, the depth of the competition is certainly devalued.
I asked Federer about the injuries that are affecting most of the top players in his post-match press conference. “If we were 10 years younger, we would do much better,” Federer said. “Most of us are now 30 or older. Back in the days a lot of great players such as Edberg and Sampras retired as soon as they turned 30. Not everybody can play until 36 years old and it is somewhat normal to nurture a few injuries in your thirties and take longer breaks in order to efficiently go through rehabilitation and completely heal. As for players like Nishikori and Raonic, I am not quite sure about their problem. I am not very familiar with left wrist injuries because I don’t play with a two-handed backhand. Del Potro broke his wrist three times. I simply think that you have to learn how to better manage your schedule as you get older. Some players do the exact same things for 15 years before allowing themselves to take a break and hit the reset button.”
A French reporter also asked Roger about his decision to skip the Paris-Bercy Masters and sabotage his chances to finish the year as the world No. 1: “I don’t have any regrets. Physically I couldn’t really compete, and I don’t know how many matches I could have won there. I would have compromised my chances to do well here in London,” Roger explained.
Federer is the only superstar left in the competition. Carreno Busta is taking Rafael Nadal’s place, but he’s not even close in terms of skills and popularity. Thiem and Goffin are also in the Spaniard’s group: They are two genuine and well-mannered guys with plenty of tennis talent – the Austrian is more powerful, while the Belgian is more of a finesse player. But unfortunately, none of them are selling out arenas yet. The player with the biggest personality in their group is Grigor Dimitrov, who not only is a super-talented tennis player but also a lady-killer off the court.
As for Federer’s group, the lack of quality players is even more evident. On Thursday Zverev and Sock will play for a spot in the semifinals, while Cilic is already eliminated. Zverev shows some quality tennis at times, but his inconsistency is still preventing him from becoming a great player. He was able to reach the No. 3 spot in the rankings due to the injuries and consequent absence of the top five ranked players of 2016, but he still has a lot of growing to do.
The 1998 Hanover edition was one of the most disappointing ATP Finals in history, when one of the groups was composed of Albert Costa, Alex Corretja, Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman. The tournament was eventually won by Carlos Moya, who defeated Corretja in the final. During the 2002 edition in Shanghai, Agassi withdrew after only one match and was replaced by Thomas Johansson, who joined players such as Jiri Novak, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Lleyton Hewitt in a lackluster competition. The 2003 edition in Houston had a group composed of Coria, Moya, Roddick and Schuettler, who is as ordinary as Carreno Busta in this year’s event. The most surprising outcome occurred in 2009, when Davidenko prevailed over Del Potro in an unexpected final.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com )
