World Tour Finals – Day 3
Group B – second round
(6)Jo-Wilfried Tsonga d. (8)Mardy Fish 7-6(4), 6-1 [ 1:30 h ]
It was a weird match. Someone who knows they are good servers, looking at the scoreline would expect only two breaks of serve – there were eight in total. Players broke each other twice in the 1st set with Tsonga leading by a break twice. In the tie-break decided one mini-break which Tsonga obtained with a forehand passing-shot to lead 3:1. Fish began the 2nd set with a break only to lose six consecutive games, trailing 1:3 (0-15) he threw his racquet as the first player in this year’s event. Fish was more aggressive, but Tsonga adopted the right tactics and outplayed his opponent from the baseline winning important points with passing-shots and strong serves. Fish’s chances now to qualify to the semi-finals are illusive…
A few minutes after the match was over, Andy Murray announced he withdraws from the ATP World Tour Finals due to a groin injury. He will be replaced tomorrow by Janko Tipsarevic, who said today that he had received five messages on his mobile phone yesterday when Murray received a treatment playing against Ferrer. The Serb becomes the ninth alternate to participate in the season-ending championships #
(4)Roger Federer d. (2)Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-0 [ 1:01 h ]
Federer had his assets before the match, he has been in terrific form indoors, on a 13-match winning streak, having beaten Nadal on the same court in the last year’s final, but who could expect such a beat-down? Only first four games were characteristic for most of their encounters, from ‘2 all’ Federer simply smashed his old-time rival winning 10 out of the last 11 games. Nadal was hopeless from the back of the court but didn’t change anything in his tactics. The Swiss as the first player secured a place in the semi-finals, Nadal will face Tsonga on Thursday in the deciding for this group 2nd-place match. The Spaniard has lost a match after identical scoreline – it was at the beginning of his career, in Lyon 2004 against Julien Benneteau. “Clay goes his way. At least I have one surface that goes my way.” said Federer, having won all four meetings against Nadal indoors (all at the season-ending championships – 2006, 07 in Shanghai and last two years in London).
Doubles results:
(2)M.Llodra/N.Zimonjic d. (5)R.Bopanna/A.Qureshi 7-6(6), 6-3
(3)M.Mirnyi/D.Nestor d. (8)M.Fyrstenberg/M.Matkowski 6-4, 6-3
# Alternates in ‘Masters’:
1996 Hannover: Thomas Enqvist (2 matches)
1997 Hannover: Thomas Muster, Tim Henman (both 1 match)
1998 Hannover: Greg Rusedski, Albert Costa (both 2 matches)
2002 Shanghai: Thomas Johansson (1 match)
2005 Shanghai: Fernando Gonzalez (2 matches)
2008 Shanghai: Radek Stepanek (2 matches)
2011 London: Janko Tipsarevic (supposedly 2 matches)
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Is 4th match Federer vs Nadal at Masters; I found Sampras vs Agassi (6 times), Sampras vs Becker (6 times) and Lendl vs McEnroe (5 times);
any other “head to head” repeat 5 (or more) times at Masters???
Thanks
I don’t think so.
I only can find this
Lendl vs Connors (5 times)
Rudsedski had won his two matches (2-0) but was not qualified for the semi-final because two others players played three matches (2-1)
Maybe Tipsa will be the first alternate to reach the semi final 🙂