WTF

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Nadal, Thiem, Dimitrov and Goffin

Federer, Zverev, Cilic and Sock

Rafa has to be very pleased with his group. Anyone that drew Thiem was hitting the lottery basically.

Dimitrov and Cilic are closely matched, but Rafa owns Dimitrov, although it is normally close.

Sock has more upside than Goffin, but less consistent. Don't see that Goffin has the weapons to trouble the very best.

Well, well. Last man into the event now has a chance to win it !!

It's the very last tournament of the season - but it's proving to be one of the best in terms of quality.

glad for sock

a pitty nadal retired

I like how its panned out with Sock clinching qualification unexpectedly in Paris and now reaching the semis - its added an extra bit of interest. He'll have won a few more fans during this tournament - played some nice tennis, and it will be interesting to see if he can use his great form this autumn to push on next year.

Dimitrov is looking very focused and determined, and could prove a handful for Federer should they both reach the final. Cilic has been involved in 3 setters in all his matches this tournament, but nothing to show for it - think he's low on confidence as he does have the game to do a bit better here.

I should think everyone left in the tournament will be pleased Zverev is out. Full marks to Sock. We could yet see a Fed-Sock final, although my money is on Fed-Dimi.
   Ten matches so far and just two straight-setters. The best WTF for some time?

sirfredperry wrote:I should think everyone left in the tournament will be pleased Zverev is out. Full marks to Sock. .................................
   Ten matches so far and just two straight-setters. The best WTF for some time?

Sock has impressed /surprised everyone - spectators, tourney organisers - and probably himself too ! He clearly arrived with determination to take full advantage of his last-minute (but fully-deserved) qualification which, just a few weeks ago, he would barely imagine was even possible ..... living the dream, as it were !

Zverev looked very annoyed with himself for letting this chance slip. But despite the defeat, I remain convinced that he has a top-level career ahead of him. I'd say he's the real deal. Some of his defensive and retrieval play was amazing.

Yes, definitely one of the best WTF's in recent years, notwithstanding notable absentees

This has to be the lowest quality WTF in recent memory. Only the Rafa v Goffin match was a good standard and that still had the embarrassment of Goffin trying to choke a match against a one-legged Rafa.

On the plus side, I’ve really enjoyed the doubles and, whilst he isn’t really good enough to be appearing in a WTF at this stage of his career, Jack Sock has been a breath of fresh air. He brings a good energy to the court and at least tried something different.

Fed v Goffin will be very one-sided. However, Sock v Dimitrov does have potential to be intriguing- Dimitrov’s group was ridiculously easy and I wonder if he might come unstuck against some form of resistance - particularly with the biggest final of his career on the line. Just hoping we can somehow have a decent final!

Agree that Dimi may have had it too easy and that things could get tricky if he gets into a real dogfight with Sock.
   Dimi has had some excellent results this year but some fairly catastrophic defeats, too. He's lost to Rublev, Haase, Janowicz, Struff and Robredo among others. Also, Sock beat him earlier in the season, as well.
  Difficult to see anything other than a Fed victory against Goffin.

sirfredperry wrote:Agree that Dimi may have had it too easy and that things could get tricky if he gets into a real dogfight with Sock.
   ...................................................

Yes, I know what you mean re Dimitrov ...... it’s been a fairly straightforward run so far, but in fairness he has also played very well to make the semis, and looks very focussed.

I’m hoping Sock can continue where he left off in his Zverev match because there was some very impressive stuff in that one, with both of them producing great tennis - albeit not always at the same time, hence the rollercoaster mood. Spectators at that one got their money’s worth

Zverev was always going to be the main threat to Federer, being the only (?) player of the field to have scored a W over him this year - but of course Sock took him out, against most expectations.

Even though topping his group, Federer hasn’t looked sharp throughout, and his B/P conversion rate is not exactly stellar. Doubt that Goffin can stop him, but the Final could be interesting.

Credit to Goffin for ‘re-grouping’ mentally v Thiem, after what must have been a very bruising defeat just 48 hours or so previously.

Goffin hits a purple patch and suddenly Federer being tested.

Awful set from Fed. Very impressive from Goffin though - served it out very well.

It’s a one-set shootout.

And with the number of errors now coming from Federer, this really could go either way.

The final twist of the year ?.....

Oh wow.

Goffin looks ready to do to Federer he did to Thiem ........

Who would have thunk it

Biggest shock in WTF history ......??

Wow - I don’t think Fed was fully fit but still that was exceptional by Goffin. Ice cold to serve it out. Goffin, Dimitrov or Sock for the WTF!

Well. What a surprise. How about a Goffin-Sock final?

Well played to Goffin.

Big congrats to Goffin  

He was aided & abetted by a whole raft of uncharacteristic FH errors by the Fed in sets 2 & 3.  But it’s far from easy to close out matches v Federer even when he is below par, and Goffin deserves full credit for staying razor-sharp when it mattered.

This win could give him huge confidence going into the Final. But ...... OTOH, he could possibly have one of those classic negative reactions that so often follow a shock giant-killer result. Let’s hope he can put in a solid performance, win or lose. (And what a win it would be .... )

Good performance by Dimitrov to get past Sock. Held it together well. Very intriguing final given the score in their RR match!

So many thrilling three-setters this past week, we’ve been spoilt with a tennis feast

Here’s hoping for one more to make it a great Final.

Terrific final. Very hard to split them but Dimitrov just held his nerve at the end.

Dimi finally gets over the line on MP number five. Good final. Very competitive and good to see some new faces in the WTF. Dimi goes up to number three but still some way behind the top two.

An excellent Final, and just what we needed to round off what has been an above-average WTF week. So much fine tennis that it was easy to forget about the notable absentees.

Well done Grigor ...... fully-deserving Champ, having played at a consistently high level throughout the tourney.

Here’s to good things in 2018.

Well done Dimitrov, a bit harsh when you have to play the player in the final you've already easily beaten in the group stages, but he dealt with it well.

With WTF over it's possible to see roughly what the seeding will look like at the AO in January. Dimi has pushed up to three but it's remarkable that some of the absentees (Stan, Djoko, Murray) are still reasonably high up the rankings. 
   Also, the likes of Thiem and Zverev did not get the big points at the end of 2017 that would have enabled them to get well ahead of the absentees and to close the gap on the top two.
  Say Djoko and Murray go deep in Melbourne they could make up a lot of lost ground. When you see players thousands of points behind the leaders it's sometimes difficult to remember that everyone starts of no points at the beginning of the year.
   Rafa should be top for some time as his nearest rival, Fed, has a lot of points to defend. Dimi, as well, has early 2017 points to defend.
   I have a feeling that Djoko will come storming back in 2018. The draw for Melbourne is going to be very interesting.

The final was an excellent one, with great shot making from both players. Congrats to Grigor. Goffin would have been a deserving champ as well. The margins that separated the two players were very fine in the end

Good final. Congrats to Dimitrov. Goffin.

happy for dimitrov

goffin also a great player... but only one can win