ATP World Tour Finals 2011, London Calling

First topic message reminder :

Here we go again!

Final tournament for the best 8 of 2011: Djokovic, Nadal, Murray, Federer, Ferrer, Berdych, Tsonga, Fish.


Some call it the 5th slam, some see it as an exhibiton, as for me, it presents as a super opportunity to expereience some more tennis thrill before the Christmas off-season, to see, hopefully some good matches and the legends of the game, LIVE!!!!

This time last year, the weather was awful, tube drivers were striking, 606v2 didn't exist, I had a near-death experience, and Nole managed to put TWO lenses in one eye and was considered by most to be a one slam wonder....


Haven't things changed in the meantime ?

So, I'm taking this last opportunity of 2011 to:

1) watch tennis in GMT time-zone and not have to wear massive bags under my eyes every morning
2) see a civilized scenario of 2 matches a day (must say a perfect portion!)
3) enjoy seeing those matches in the packed O2 arena every day for every match


And because one never knows what another day may bring, who may or may not be in London this time next year, because above all we all love tennis, let's enjoy the last stop of this 2011 quirky, cosy tennis ride, let the WTF commence


Order of play for Sunday, 18th of November 2011:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Finals/2011.aspx


P.S.

There will be a few people form this forum going to O2 next week. Please find a bit of time to give us your first-hand impressions and perhaps photos and personal anecdotes.

God willing, I'll be there on Sunday and Monday evening sessions.

Nice thread NITB , but the first match was very poor, Fed was lucky to scrap the win, none of the three sets were impressive except for few points here and there.

Rather than players raising each other's level they some how ended up bringing their level down match each other.

May be coz its the first match neither player is warmed up to produce a stunner, I didnt see a passionate effort from either of them, they both looked nervous and played the match nervous. I hope atleast Fish vs Nadal be better.

After all the "excitement" of last night, I decided to stay at home today. Just dislodge myself out of the warm cosy sofa for the Fish Nadal match. The thought of the train trip and the underground , fog, shoddy seat....not worth it.

So glad I bought the ticket, it wasn't a present or anything

I should be in better mood tomorrow....

Haven't even seen the Federer Tsonga match...some days I wish I stayed in bed....

What's this an MTO before the match has started?

Anybody still awake?
Damn, it takes long before this match starts... Nadal took a MTO, before the match even started...

BTW: Overend talked about a low bounce (?). Maybe this match will tell us more about the conditions

Possibly the lowest standard game of the year there.

Well, Fish picked up the level that has been set this afternoon

Moonballing at its best. Typical of a nadal break, 4 UEs from Fish.

This court is like sandpaper, it almost increases the spin on the ball.
It's bouncy, no matter what Overend said

It's amazing what Tsonga and Fed had to do win a point and you see Nadal drawing so many UEs from absolute terrible shots from Nadal.

Uncle Toni rules again.

It's incredible how the game is being constructed around a big version of table tennis.

you right it does look bouncier.

is anyone going to produce decent tennis this week?

that last point from Nadal was ok.

Nole said the court is slow-medium fast, with high bounce.

I woudl not be surprised if there was somthing wrong with the courts. Fish did the same mistake as Fed and Tsonga did at times, sending the ball strainght to the bottom of the time completely mistiming it.

I think there is too much sand and the spin is extremely difficult to control.

Indeed I wonder whether that woudl not be to help one player again.

It's looking like a training session.

oh I love a good conspiracy theory. Or it could be that the courts aren't quite broken in yet probably, so the bounce is a bit uneven still. I think it will improve throughout the week.

Whatever the reason, the standard is garbage.

Nadal upping his level...

noleisthebest wrote:Nole said the court is slow-medium fast, with high bounce.

sounds like he's covering all bases.

emancipator wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:Nole said the court is slow-medium fast, with high bounce.

sounds like he's covering all bases.

sorry, he said it was medium with very high bounce.

Nadal broken 0;2.

Fly Fish!

noleisthebest wrote:

emancipator wrote:

noleisthebest wrote:Nole said the court is slow-medium fast, with high bounce.

sounds like he's covering all bases.

sorry, he said it was medium with very high bounce.

so the designers sat down and said: it's already slow, now let's create a very high bounce!

WHY!!??

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah Fish baby, let's go

3:0 Fish, superb game this last one.

Who wants to see Nadal battered by Fish

and the first Fish pun of the day is



NITB

noleisthebest wrote:Who wants to see Nadal battered by Fish

Stop carping on. This isnt the plaice.

3:1. The ball must be going 3-4m above the net, this is planetary height tennis.

I am amazed by Nadal's lack of feel on serve. He does muscle the ball and have little control on when it lands. If you have most players first serve they miss the lines by much less in percentage than Nadal. When federer misses his first serve, it's usually not far from the lines, with Nadal, he can spread them quite a bit but his second serve is usually well in but with max spin.

Fish BH is better than Nadal's FH.

Nadal choking main points, bearly wins his serve for 4:2.

Fish has an astonishing gf.

Nadal is looking amazingly average.

5:3, 30:40 if Fish looses this game, he will lose the set & match!

Awful play from Nadal, just moonballing non-stop.

6:2, 3:6.

Fish holds his nerve, and a good punchy volley gives him the set

Some super duper new analysis in TV tech from Sky, pencil and all.

This loss of set by Nadal could be crucial for the qualification.

Jahu wrote:Some super duper new analysis in TV tech from Sky, pencil and all.

Yeah, we never had any way to see replays before.

Tenez wrote:This loss of set by Nadal could be crucial for the qualification.

I was thinking the same thing. Assuming Rafa wins through here, you could conceivably imagine him beating Fed but losing to Tsonga, and assuming Fish goes 0-3 you could end up with a three-way tie at the top...

Nadal's moonballing is reaching WTA proportions

Nadal finds two superb passes to break Fish at the start of the third

noleisthebest wrote:Nadal's moonballing is reaching WTA proportions

It's absolutely terrible. Just proves he relies more on his opponents UEs than his own winners.

Nadal breaks, 2:0, and runs unannounced to toilet, umpire telling Fish 5 times to sit as Nadal has gone to bathroom. 2m 30 sec. Psycho game from Nadal?

Maybe the WCs should be closer to the court ?

What a game, what a last point from Fish, superb 1:2 Fish to serve.

Fantastic stuff from Fish!

lovely half-volley from Fish to break back

wooooooow, awesome volley from Fish to break back