ATP World Tour Finals 2014: Format, Rules, Players and Draw Schedule
Most tennis tournaments feature a long list of players who could pass even the most ardent tennis fans on the street with no problem. For those looking for a tournament featuring only the highest-quality tennis with the world's best players, look no further than the season-ending 2014 ATP World Tour Finals.
The event—which features the top eight singles players and best eight doubles pairings available—takes place from Nov. 9-16 at the O2 Arena in London. It is indeed a highly exclusive affair, featuring only the best singles and doubles players from the 2014 ATP Tour.
Well, almost.
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No. 3-ranked Rafael Nadal will not be participating in this year's tournament. He decided to skip out on the remainder of the ATP season in late October, as he needed appendix surgery and to work out a lingering back issue, per a report from The Guardian.
Format, Rules
The format and rules of the tournament are relatively simple, via BarclaysATPWorldTourFinals.com:
"The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals has a round-robin format, with eight players/teams divided into two groups of four. The eight seeds are determined by the Emirates ATP Rankings and Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings on the Monday after the last ATP World Tour tournament of the calendar year. All singles matches are the best of three tie-break sets, including the final. All doubles matches are two sets (no ad) and a Match Tie-break.
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The top player(s) in each group will then progress to the semifinals and play the runner(s)-up from the opposite group in a knockout format, which will then set up the finals match (this also applies to the doubles tournament). A helpful chart can be found here.
Here is the full list of 2014 ATP World Tour Finals participants, followed by the draw schedule for the tournament.
| Novak Djokovic (1) | A | Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan (1) | A |
| Roger Federer (2) | B | Daniel Nestor, Nenad Zimonjic (2) | B |
| Stan Wawrinka (4) | A | Alexander Peya, Bruno Soares (3) | A |
| Kei Nishikori (5) | B | Julien Benneteau, Edouard Roger-Vasselin (4) | B |
| Andy Murray (6) | B | Jean-Julien Rojer, Horia Tecau (5) | A |
| Tomas Berdych (7) | A | Marcel Granollers, Marc Lopez (6) | B |
| Milos Raonic (8) | B | Ivan Dodig, Marcelo Melo (7) | B |
| Marin Cilic (9) | A | Lukasz Kubot, Robert Lindstedt (9) | A |
| Time (local) | Matchup | Group | Draw |
| 12 p.m. | Benneteau-Roger-Vasselin vs. Granollers-Lopez | B | Doubles |
| 2 p.m. | Nishikori vs. Murray | B | Singles |
| 6 p.m. | Nester-Zimonjic vs. Dodig-Melo (B) | B | Doubles |
| 8 p.m. | Federer vs. Raonic | B | Singles |
| Time (local) | Matchup | Group | Draw |
| 12 p.m. | Peya-Soares vs. Rojer-Tecau | A | Doubles |
| 2 p.m. | Wawrinka-Berdych | A | Singles |
| 6 p.m. | Bryan-Bryan vs. Lindstedt-Kubot | A | Doubles |
| 8 p.m. | Djokovic vs. Cilic | A | Singles |
| Time (local) | Matchup | Group | Draw |
| 12 p.m. | TBD | B | Doubles |
| 2 p.m. | TBD | B | Singles |
| 6 p.m. | TBD | B | Doubles |
| 8 p.m. | TBD | B | Singles |
| Time (local) | Matchup | Group | Draw |
| 12 p.m. | TBD | A | Doubles |
| 2 p.m. | TBD | A | Singles |
| 6 p.m. | TBD | A | Doubles |
| 8 p.m. | TBD | A | Singles |
| Time (local) | Matchup | Group | Draw |
| 12 p.m. | TBD | B | Doubles |
| 2 p.m. | TBD | B | Singles |
| 6 p.m. | TBD | B | Doubles |
| 8 p.m. | TBD | B | Singles |
| Time (local) | Matchup | Group | Draw |
| 12 p.m. | TBD | A | Doubles |
| 2 p.m. | TBD | A | Singles |
| 6 p.m. | TBD | A | Doubles |
| 8 p.m. | TBD | A | Singles |
| Time (local) | Matchup | Group | Draw |
| 12 p.m. | TBD | A/B | Doubles Semifinal |
| 2 p.m. | TBD | A/B | Singles Semifinal |
| 6 p.m. | TBD | A/B | Doubles Semifinal |
| 8 p.m. | TBD | A/B | Singles Semifinal |
| Time (local) | Matchup | Group | Draw |
| 3:30 p.m. | TBD | TBD | Doubles Championship |
| 6 p.m. | TBD | TBD | Singles Championship |
Note: The complete rundown of players, schedules, rules and format can be found at BarclaysATPWorldTourFinals.com.
Singles Preview
Underdogs here are often championship contenders elsewhere. It's a treat for the fans watching the games in the controlled atmosphere of the 02 Arena's indoor courts.
One can almost look at the event as tennis in a vacuum, devoid of normal situational advantages (clay, grass) and low-ranking players scavenging for upset victories. If you win here, you had to beat the best.
The singles tournament is a near-perfect lineup of what modern tennis has to offer. The ruling class, headed by the likes of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, will do battle with some of the more exciting up-and-comers in tennis, such as 23-year-old Milos Raonic and 24-year-old Kei Nishikori.
Djokovic is looking to win the ATP World Tour finals for the third year in a row, a feat achieved by only two players in the history of the tournament: Ivan Lendl (1985-87) and Ilie Nastase (1971-73). He should be able to run roughshod over his group and is coming off a tournament win at the 2014 BNP Paribas Masters, defeating Raonic in the finals.
He can also clinch the year-end No. 1 ranking by winning all three of his round-robin contests, per The New York Times' Christopher Clarey.
Nishikori and Raonic, the two youngest singles players in the tournament, happen to be in Federer's group. It will be interesting to see how the Swiss maestro holds up at the end of a long season against his youthful, energetic foes.
Nishikori, at the very least, should have plenty of time to concentrate on his matches as the more famous players in the tournament garner the majority of the adulation, per BBC Sport's Karthi Gnanasegaram:
Murray should get plenty of support from the crowd as the local favorite, but don't expect it to preclude him from making drastic errors.
The Glasgow native had plenty of support in Wimbledon 2014 when he lost in the quarterfinals to Grigor Dimitrov. Indeed, there might be more on the line for Murray than any other player as he works his way back into the elite group of tennis players, per The Scotsman's Alix Ramsay:
"After a year of surprise results – Wawrinka and Cilic winning their first grand slam titles – that would re-establish the old order: the Gang of Four (Djokovic, Federer, Rafael Nadal and Murray) back at the top of the rankings ladder.
But in order to get himself back into that elite group, Murray must start beating his fellow gang members.
"
And that has, so far, been beyond him this season. Yet, after all he has achieved this autumn and after six, back-breaking weeks on the road to amass the points necessary to get into the Tour Finals, Murray now believes that the next breakthrough is within reach.
A win for Murray here would perhaps overturn the hourglass marking time on the so-called Gang of Four's run at the top of the sport.
There is a great opportunity at this tournament for a less-dominant tennis force to pull off an upset win and freeze out Djokovic, Murray or Federer from season-ending glory. So much attention is paid to that trio (plus Nadal) for their recent dominance of tennis Grand Slams. Cilic's victory over Nishikori at the 2014 U.S. Open gave some hope for a sea change in tennis, although Murray doesn't think the currents have shifted away from the current elite just yet.
"There definitely has been a change but it's not as drastic as maybe people were making out," he said, via USA Today's Douglas Robson.
Parity works quite well in many other sports, and there is enough young talent in tennis to sow discord in the rankings over the next couple of years.
Should the likes of Cilic, Raonic or Nishikori win the whole tournament, it could be a sign that 2015 is to be one of the most wide-open years in tennis in quite some time.
Stan Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych don't necessarily fit in with the younger cohort, but a win from either 29-year-old would be a huge shake-up, although there is a chance it wouldn't galvanize fans the way a victory from one of the younger players might.
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