World Tour Finals

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Is this going to be the worst quality one of all time?

No one is going to be in form, bar Murray, who is starting to look tired.

Djokovic - hasn't played well since RG
Murray - trying to be YE no1 must be tiring him out. To win Vienna and Paris will be his last four tournaments won I think.
Stan - is he ever in form, except for at the business end of the odd slam he wins. Nearly lost to The Donald yesterday.
Raonic - lost to Berankis (who lost to Marcus Willis at Wimbledon) this week.
Nishikori - probably in the next best form after Murray.
Monfils - Injured. Last seen losing to Gastao Elias.
Thiem - hasn't played well since before Wimbledon. Burn out/injury. Lost to Troicki in his home tournament.
Berdych - lost to Basilashvili this week.

Goffin - lost early, although to Delpo, this week.
Cilic - probably a bit far back.

I've got tickets too!

Lendl on if he thought Stan played better in his second match than in his first: "2-6 3-6 then win, yes, probably".

Murray through to the SF's after clinching that opener.

On its day, I always find the Federer SHBH a joy to watch..... but Wawrinka's is truly a thing of beauty, and it's looking pretty good today

Murray takes the first set to make sure of his place in the semi-finals. Wawrinka started like a train, with 12 clean winners in the first three games alone, but Murray hung tough, playing some great stuff of his own, and was good enough to take advantage of a slight dip from Wawrinka to break at 3-3 before closing the set out with rock solid serving (Wawrinka winning just one point off Murray's first serve I think). Easily his best set of tennis at the O2 this year

Wawrinka now needs to win the last two sets and hope Cilic beats Nisikori.

Murray through - Phew

Now to win the match

Murrays slice forehand is ridiculous. He always seems to get it back in an awkward spot for his opponent. Always think it looks lucky, but happens so often that it can't be.

So it's pretty much Murray v Raonic and Djokovic v Nishikori as the semis. Barring some sort of miracle from Stan/Cilic.

So important for Andy to maintain his form for just two more days. He does look very hard to beat, despite occasional lapses.

Nobody knows for sure just how 2017 will pan out, but if he can hold on to his hard-earned top spot here in London, then he will forever be known not only as a World No.1 but as a season-ending No.1, which of course looks that much more special in the record books.

Murray playing points with a broken string is one of the great things in tennis, the control he's able to get in that situation is quite remarkable, and that sliced lob was amazing, even if he ended up losing the point.

Fine fine performance by him today, and crucially didn't spend too much energy on court, so should be able to recover fine for tomorrow's semi.

So semis are:
Murray vs Raonic
Djokovic vs Nishikori

Very good from Murray today. Only a few unforced errors and none of the really bad ones he had against Nishikori. Wawrinka came out all guns firing and looking ominous but Muurray hung in and took a lot of the belief out of him.

Everything against Murray in this tourney - much stronger group, crazy situation that he could have gone out after two wins (Nishi could qualify with just ONE win) and no rest between third match and semi.
But he's come through and managed to have his really tough encounter in the second match rather than today.
He's beaten Raonic four times this season and it could be that Djoko will have the tougher of the two semis.

Year End no 1 is a bigger deal plus if he does end up year end no 1 then he is in a very strong position to be year end no 1 for about 7-8 months more - from now until Wimbledon.

It's nice that a y/e no 1 has gone to the final couple of days. In past years this has been quite rare that it was really even in play at this tournament. It was often decided even after the US Open, maybe not mathematically exactly but in practice as good as.

I think you could honestly say whoever wins this tournament deserves it, they really have been about equal across the year.

It could come down to Murray needing to beat Djokovic for y/e no 1, that kind of feels right.

Murray looks to me like he has a slightly injured shoulder. First serve doesn't have much on it and it's letting Raonic into a lot of points.

Well-deserved break for Milos. Andy doesn't look at the races today.

Lame game from Andy. I had him penciled in as the YE #1 and did not think it was in much doubt either but I am much less certain now.

54% first serve points won for Andy in that set. Very odd.

This is as bad as Andy has played in a long time. Raonic just played an awful service game and Andy still found a way not to break.

Then starts this game with a DF.

There are a few signs he might be starting to find a bit more timing though.

Mental midget Murray crumbling...only really inherited Djokovic's #1 ranking and Murray probably peed as his pants at the prospect of getting yet another drubbing at the hands of the real #1

He needs to find that timing before he loses the match.

The way he lost the two BPs on Raonic's serve was pathetic.

Breaks back to love. Mainly through Raonic being awful. Not often you get two top players playing this badly at the same time!

That was very generous from Milos.

It is starting to look like Andy might be able to prevail. Neither playing great but Andy is the one holding more easily now.

Miserable 4 points from Andy having got to 0-30. Think a break is coming here.

Do hope Andy's season doesn't end right here in this TB. It would be a real anti-climax after all his superb efforts over recent months.

Andy survives the set, should be a clear favorite now.

Murray flukes the second set

Here we go to a decider ! This has a similar tension to a Slam SF.

Think Raonic will take this. His serve looks back to normal and Murray is still awful. Expect a letdown here from Andy.

@BS - i seem to think you're due a good prediction (after a less-than-impressive run IIRC ! ) .... so maybe you're about to be proved right on this one .....

No way Raonic will win this.

Obvious bottle incoming...

There we go.

Raonic gifts another service game to Andy. Very kind, he has been today.

Mhmm....

Murray will break again now.

There we go. Raonic doesn't have it mentally to beat the best players.

This ending has been rather odd - both guys look too nervous to win.

Funny match this. Wouldn't surprise me at all if Murray gets broken again here!

choke-a-thon

Is this now the longest ever WTF match (ie in the 3-setter era) .....

And Andy does it!

Not the best of matches but high drama galore. Well done.

Dramatic.

I think Raonic goes into safe mode when he has a chance of winning. He's not going to be too successful rallying with Murray.

Guest82 wrote:I think Raonic goes into safe mode when he has a chance of winning.

Yes, he often looks like he is too scared to pull the trigger on big points.

Awful match from him but Murray somehow comes through. Has now beaten the players who will be ranked 3,4,5 and 6 next week. Can't see him winning the final as he doesn't look to have anything left. If he's to be YE1 I think he needs Kei to win tonight.

Murray was too passive and didn't play with much variety in the first set which was allowing Raonic to turn rallies into his favour. Only started to get more aggressive after losing serve to go 1-2 down in the second. Got through but must be at a big physical cost.

Well I have no idea how Murray won that TBH, for most of the match he wasn't playing well, his first serve was making no inroads and Raonic was bossing the match, but in the big moments Raonic just couldn't hold it together. Agree with others that on big points Raonic goes too passive whereas the aggressive approach worked so well throughout the rest of the match.

Murray looks like he's running on empty. His shoulder looks to be bothering him a bit (could explain the lack of pop on first serve?) but he's just in that winning habit right now, and seems in some way incapable of losing.

Surely must be cooked for tomorrow though, that's two marathons he's had already this week, and this time no day off. Has to hope Nishikori and Djokovic play a long one tonight...

I give Murray a lot of credit & respect for coming through this one. These days he shows the same sort of battling spirit which so many Number Ones have shown throughout the history of the sport : a tenacity and ability to pull through - even when some way below your best.

When we think of the very biggest names we tend to recall their most stylish, most convincing victories ; but we know that the likes of Fed, Nadal and Djokovic - in the course of their rise to the top - have won many, many matches when it was more about grinding than delighting. The same applies further back with Borg and Sampras. And the same applies currently with Murray.

Agree with others that tomorrow's Final really looks a bridge too far for him. And Djokovic will be very determined to regain his top dog spot - especially as it would mean yet another year-end No.1 for the history books, and his overall legacy.

There was some very impressive stuff from Raonic. I was thinking that his fiercest detractors, who have always been keen to label him a crude one-trick pony, might now begin to accept that his game continues to develop, with no lack of variety and tactical awareness (but perhaps I'm expecting too much there ....!)

A good win for Murray condsidering his poor record at this tournament.

I think it's his first final.

Definately not a vintage performance but the win streak continues, you can't be perfect every time.

Novak destroying Kei so far - Kei looks very flat.

Nishikori looking knackered. He's had that marathon against Murray of course on Wednesday, and played a three setter last night, whereas Djokovic has had the extra rest and generally shorter matches. Lousy game from Djokovic that though, from 40-15 he loses four straight points, the last three to pretty poor errors, and Nishikori gets back to 1-4.

So Murray playing a marathon and not looking that good...Djokovic cruising and looking back to something near his best.

We all know that adds up to a Murray win tomorrow.