CAMELOT FANTASIES

The World Tour Finals elite players completed their first round matches yesterday with no surprises other than the lopsided scorelines.

World #4 Stan Wawrinka, aka Stanimal, or Stan the Man, returned to London in fine style and form against #7 Tomas Berdych.  That may have been a surprise to many considering Stan's play of late, but no surprise to those who have been watching the Australian Open champion practice hard recently in preparation for the Finals in London and the Davis Cup Finals in France.



Wawrinka totally dismantled Berdych, 6-1, 6-1, the notorious double bread sticks, putting in a true Stanimal performance. No part of his game was missing, from service to his backhand to his volleys. He was on fire from the start and Berdych seemed a punch drunk shadow of himself.

In two sets of tennis, the powerful Czech did not make a single winner from his forehand or backhand side. It's true that the O2 courts are slowish, but a man of Berdych's stature and strength should be able to find a few winners.  That is testimony to the strength of Wawrinka's defense. Time and time again, he returned the Berdych serve and ground strokes, patient, calculating, mixing up pace, and waiting for the right moment to strike.  It was clay court point construction on the sandy hard courts of London's O2 arena.

Stan's play was brilliant and fully deserved the dominating scoreline. Tomas' play was unimaginative, under par, and shell shocked. He was a beaten man in more ways than one when he left the court. After the match, he said:

"I'm in the worst possible situation that I can ever be," he gloomily said. "I'm going to face Marin or Novak first, in the end playing both of them, and the only chance to qualify is to beat them, it's almost mission impossible."

Now one ask to ask, even if true, what kind of attitude is this from any player, much less a top 10 player? I expect him to say something like,
'I didn't play well today. I have some tough matches coming and I have to fight hard to play my best tennis. I can beat these players if I can bring my best tennis.'

I would rather see alternate David Ferrer out there making the big effort than Berdych sadly in despair. Berdych needs a strong coach who can attempt to get his mentality and attitude straight. Rumors are that it might happen. We'll see.



In the evening match, Wimbledon champion and world #1 Novak Djokovic soundly beat US Open champion #9 Marin Cilic 6-1, 6-1.  Novak played very well, and definitely retained his winning Paris form, but Cilic looked nowhere near his US Open form. He was very rusty, serving under 50% most of the match, and serves he did get in were solidly returned by Nole.  He couldn't match Nole in the baseline battles either, and had a difficult time trying to hit winners, as many sailed beyond the lines. 

Marin's dull play wasn't unexpected.  Marin had seen little play nursing an arm injury, his last match being an ATP 250 win in Moscow about a month before. If he is not hurt, I expect to see some improvement in his next match, especially as he'll play the aforementioned disconsolate Berdych, but he is not showing form enough to proceed to the knockout phase of this tournament.  Novak served fairly well, was razor-sharp from the back of the court, defending and returning well, and was hitting deep to the lines. He'll be tough to beat here in these conditions.

The Serbian Slayer and Stanimal are unquestionably the picks to advance to the semifinals from Group A. They play each other next in what should be an exciting match to determine the top player in Group A.  Novak will be seeking to avenge his QF Australian Open defeat to Stan, which was the last time they played each other.  Stan will be looking to affirm his return to form and help his friend and countryman Roger Federer retain his slim hopes for the Year End #1 ranking at the same time.



The second round begins today with the winners of group B's round 1 playing. It will be #2 Roger Federer vs. #5 Kei Nishikori in the afternoon, and the losers, #8 Milos Raonic against #6 Andy Murray in the evening session.  One hopes to see some better battles than yesterday.

Respectfully,
masterclass