2014 ATP World Tour Finals: The Biggest Challenge for Each Contender
At the time of writing, all players have now played their first match at this year’s 2014 ATP World Tour Finals.
Group A has witnessed two thrashings thus far, with Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka beating Marin Cilic and Tomas Berdych, respectively, 6-1, 6-1 on Monday.
Group B has been somewhat tighter, with Kei Nishikori earning his first career win (6-4, 6-4) over Andy Murray in a rather turgid match on Saturday, while Roger Federer exacted revenge over Milos Raonic for his quarter-final exit at Paris last week by winning 6-1, 7-6 to top the group.
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So, with two crucial rounds of matches remaining at the round robin stage, what are the biggest challenges facing each contender?
Roger Federer
The 33-year-old has rarely made playing tennis look like a challenge over the last 12 years or so.
Possessing the greatest natural skill set the sport has ever seen, Federer's biggest personal challenge at times has perhaps been avoiding complacency.
After racing through the first set against Raonic quicker than most people get ready for work in the morning, he made much harder work of the second.
"I had a couple of games where I was up 40-love up, and both times he came back and got into the game, which was probably my mistake," the Swiss told reporters, as per Sports Illustrated.
Perhaps his 6-1 career record against the Canadian was in the back of his mind.
But such complacency against Nishikori and Murray, neither of whom he has a positive career record against, is unlikely, particularly with a chance to top the group and (in all likelihood) avoid Djokovic until the final is up for grabs.
Nishikori and Murray both have superb court coverage, which always poses an issue for the 33-year-old.
Kei Nishikori
The No. 4 seed admitted, via Sports Illustrated, that nerves contributed to his slow start against Murray: “The stadium is huge. I try not to look up too much because there was too many people on the top. Maybe when I walk into the stadium, I was nervous.”
Theoretically, that should now be out of his system, particularly given that he managed to record his first career win over the Scot.
His main challenge now is to find some rhythm—so important to his all-action style—which was dearly lacking against Murray.
He had six double faults, for example, but his opponent routinely let him off the hook.
Federer will not be so forgiving.
Even though Nishikori defeated the Swiss in Miami earlier this year, it might be a case of damage limitation ahead of an encounter with Raonic, where a win would surely see him through.
Andy Murray
Murray uncharacteristically returned poorly versus Nishikori, who made six double faults and was clearly struggling with the occasion early in the match.
Murray will need to improve in this aspect, particularly against the big-serving Raonic in Tuesday’s crunch match.
More crucial, however, will be his serve, otherwise it will ease the pressure on Raonic and Federer, and his chances of dictating rallies will diminish.
Against Nishikori, Murray won just 26 percent of points on his second serve.
Match point down, he served at just 84 mph.
From that moment it was inevitable that his subsequent backhand—which produced 16 unforced errors—would limply drift out of play to conclude a lifeless match.
Murray himself recognised, as per the Guardian, that his serve must improve: “If I can serve better that will help, regardless of whether it is against Milos [Raonic] or Roger [Federer].”
In truth, his all-round game must, otherwise a fourth semi-final appearance at this tournament will have to wait another year.
Milos Raonic
In the first set against Federer, the Canadian looked unrecognisable from last week in Paris, where he reached the final.
Raonic’s serve, as always, was not the problem: 65 percent of his first serves landed, often at ferocious speeds.
But the second game encapsulated the set: 138 mph and 141 mph serves were made to look like tame off-spinners by Federer’s impeccable timing as the Swiss broke serve.
Was it mental, then?
"I get pretty angry when I lose," Raonic admitted to reporters, as per Sports Illustrated. "I'm going to have to learn how to slap myself out of it."
It should not be forgotten that, at 23 years of age, Raonic is the youngest competitor at the O2 this year.
And like fellow debutant Nishikori, whom he will face in his last fixture, he clearly struggled with the occasion throughout the first set.
But he managed to bounce back in the second, earning a set point in the 12th game, only to subsequently crumble to love in the tie-break.
Both Murray and Nishikori will look to lengthen rallies and expose Raonic’s weaker backhand whenever possible, so the Canadian must ensure he adheres to his own words by avoiding frustration.
Novak Djokovic
Any hints of distraction following his newborn baby were emphatically dispatched last week in his winning a second successive title at the Paris Masters.
The Serb is hands down the best player in world tennis and has been handed the easier group of the two.
He’s already thrashed Cilic 6-1, 6-1, while his career records against Wawrinka and Berdych read 15-3 and 16-2, respectively.
Wawrinka, whom he faces next, showed serious signs of recovery in producing the same score-line (6-1, 6-1) over Berdych, but neither should pose Djokovic too much of a worry.
His challenge, then, is surely one last showdown of 2014 versus Federer. In the final.
Stan Wawrinka
Prior to his thrashing of Berdych, in which he displayed his best tennis for several months, the main challenge facing the Australian Open champion was recovering his form from late 2013/early 2014.
That form saw him reach the semi-final here last year, which is certainly a more likely repeat prospect now than it was two days ago.
He faces Djokovic next and perhaps finds himself in a similar position to Nishikori: Win the last match against a comparatively weaker opponent, and second should be his.
If that was to happen, he would almost certainly face compatriot Federer in the semi-final ahead of playing alongside him in the Davis Cup final next week.
Wawrinka threatened to finally move out of Federer’s shadow by winning the Australian Open, but his career record of 2-14 and the two players' contrasting form since would be an extremely tough mental challenge.
But, as he told reporters, as per the Guardian, following his trouncing of Berdych, “When I feel good on the court, I’m ready to beat everybody.”
Tomas Berdych
How do you recover from a 6-1, 6-1 thrashing at the hands of your biggest rival for second spot?
That is a challenge in itself, particularly for a player who has always struggled with self-belief.
“Unfortunately it was my worst match of the whole season,” Berdych acknowledged to reporters, as per the Guardian. “And I kept it for the start here.”
This is now the Czech’s fifth successive finals, but only once has he progressed past the round robin stage.
With Djokovic still to play, it seems incredibly unlikely that will change this year, particularly after he was almost double-bagled by the Serb in Beijing last month.
His one saving grace is that his next opponent, Cilic, was also battered on Monday.
After losing to the U.S. Open champion in straight sets at Wimbledon, some revenge would ensure respectability at the very least.
Marin Cilic
Like Berdych, Cilic found himself beaten within an hour after winning only two games on Monday.
His opponent, the juggernaut Djokovic, was rather charitable in his assessment of the match as a “great, great” one.
However, there is no shame in being comfortably beaten by the world’s greatest player, and one who had beaten him in all 10 prior encounters.
And, as Cilic pointed out to reporters, as per Eurosport, all is not lost yet: "You know, there are two more matches. Luckily this is the first one where I played bad.
“There is still the opportunity to go through. That’s a positive part of it.”
Not only was it the first game, it was against Djokovic. Many players have played very well against the Serb and still lost.
But Cilic’s overall career record against his seven competitors now reads 13-44, by the far worst of the eight.
Improving on that, which would go some way to dispelling the idea that the U.S. Open was a fluke, remains his challenge.
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