ATP Finals Flashback: Roger Federer, Juan Martin del Potro, math and calculations

The best players of the 2009 season gathered at London's O2 Arena between November 22-29, fighting for the first ATP World Tour Finals at the new venue. Roger Federer, Juan Martin del Potro, Andy Murray and Fernando Verdasco were drawn in Group A, and it was one of the craziest runs in the history of this competition! All 12 encounters went into a decider, and with no idea who would reach the semis until the very last point of the final round-robin clash! Federer, Murray and del Potro had all defeated Verdasco (two of three matches went into a deciding tie break) and shared victories among themselves to form one of the closest circles we have ever seen at the ATP Finals. All three players stood on a 2-1 record and a 5-4 in terms of sets won! Andy Murray took down Juan Martin del Potro on an opening day while Roger Federer ousted Fernando Verdasco with a strong decider's performance.

Facing the elimination, del Potro prevailed against Verdasco in the final tie break of the second match, and Federer once again saved his best for the last to beat Murray 6-1 in the third set and top the standings. On November 26, Andy Murray could have secured the semis' place with a straight-sets victory over Verdasco. However, they pushed each other until the deciding tie break where Andy prevailed to send all the attention to the group's last remaining clash between Roger Federer and Juan Martin del Potro. Like the previous 11 matches, this turned out to be a real cracker, and it was del Potro who made a perfect start after winning the opener 6-2.

In 2009, we saw one of the tightest round-robin battles at the ATP Finals.

There were no breaks in set number two, and Roger faced elimination after trailing 5-4 in the tie break, only to take the next three points to level the score and become the first player who had secured the semi-final berth! The battle was now on between del Potro and Murray, with Andy hoping for Roger to win four games in set number three that would have sent him into the last four.

The crucial moment of the entire encounter and the round-robin stage came in the seventh game when Roger created two break chances, seeking the break that would have punched Murray's semi-final ticket. Del Potro stayed calm, repelling them all and closing the game with a forehand down the line winner for a 4-3 lead. Still, the Argentine needed to break Roger's serve in the next one and did that at 15 when Federer's forehand landed long, moving 5-3 up and serving for the match and the place in the semis. Juan Martin delivered four winners in that last game, sealing the deal and moving through after winning just one game more than Murray, standing on a 45-43 win-loss ratio and leaving the Briton empty-handed with a 44-43 one! 

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3glzMFa