ATP World Championships: Six Men Fight it Out for the Last Three Spots
Now that the Women’s Tennis Association is done with their end of year championships at Doha, with Kim Clijsters emerging as the tournament victor and Caroline “Sunshine” Wozniacki finishing the year as World Number 1, it is only natural that the focus should
now shift to possibly the only event worth watching the rest of the season for. This event is the ATP’s year-end championship to be held in London with the eight highest-performing players on the Tour.
So far, five slots out of the eight have already been filled. These players are the Big Four – Rafael “Rafa” Nadal, Roger “the Maestro” Federer, Novak “Nole” Djokovic and Andrew “Andy” Murray. The current World Number 5, Robin Soderling, has also bagged
himself a competing spot at the tournament with 4780 ranking points on the ATP Top 100.
With three slots still open and up for grabs, the competition to participate in the showcase event at London is incredibly close. The players who will have a chance to show their mettle at the event must earn it at this week’s 500 tournaments, being held
in Valencia and Basel. Next week’s Paris Masters will also go a long way in determining the line-up.
Currently, there are six men who seem to have bright chances of making it to the final event. However, only three of them will be additions to the tournament, finally adding some depth to London and challenging the five players who have already clinched
places, nowadays often known as B4aS (Big Four and Soderling).
Here is a list of those players who we may have the pleasure of watching in London:
Tomas Berdych: this player has 3665 points, mostly picked up from his successful attempts to pick up his score by upsetting bigger players at tournaments where it mattered. However, he has not had much success since Wimbledon. The player
is in Basel for this week’s tournament, but then, so are Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer – this may decrease his chances, but for all practical purposes, the player is a cert.
David Ferrer: this aspiring Spaniard has been aiming for the London tournament all year, and he has made no secret of his interest. He has also done quite well in his attempt to make it to the event, with incredible results throughout the
clay season as well as solid hard court performances all year round. Even if he does not manage to grab any spare points for himself at Valencia, he stands an almost sure chance of being in the tournament with 3325 points.
Andy Roddick: although, it may seem as if this American player had a featureless season, the fact remains that he performed exceptionally well on the hard courts at the beginning of the year, in tournaments at Miami and Indian Wells. The
3305 points which he amassed at those events makes it easier for him to catch up with Ferrer or Berdych at Basel, if Berdych falls early and Roddick sees the tournament through to the end. However, Federer is also playing at Basel, which makes the odds less
probable.
Fernando Verdasco: if Verdasco puts up a performance such as the second half of his New York match, which resulted in an incredible match point, his run at Valencia will supplement his 3150 points. However, even if he wins the tournament,
he still comes up short – it must also be kept in mind that the other players may, in this interval, pick up more points for themselves.
Mikhail Youzhny: Youzhny, with 2910 points, is probably least likely to make it to the final event. He might have stood a reasonable chance had he defeated Kukushkin at St Petersburg, but with his failure to perform, he will now either have
to step up his game at Valencia or he may fall back to the ATP’s Top 20.
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