Tennis bids farewell to 2010 with ATP World Tour Finals - Part 1
Finally, here we are in London bidding farewell to 2010 as far as professional singles tennis is concerned. Men’s tennis has always had a year ending tournament since the open era. The Association of Tennis Professionals or ATP was formed in 1972 to protect
the interests of male professional tennis players. Since 1990, the association has organized the worldwide tennis tours for men and linked the title of the tour with the organisation’s name. ATP headquarters are situated in Monaco. ATP also initiated the first
drug-test in tennis, coming up with an effective drug-test system in the hopes of regulating the sport.
The ATP World Tour finals event was first held at Tokyo in 1970. The tournament became a big hit. New York’s famous Madison Square Garden enjoys a thirteen year run from 1977 to 1989 as the venue for this championship. The Becker-Sampras final of 1996 is
considered to be one of the greatest matches of recent history. Last year’s drama regarding progress to the semis was also one of the few moments when no one knew what was going on. The crowd, the players and many of the officials waited patiently to see who
had progressed to the semis and finally it was decided that it was JM Del Potro and not the home favourite Andy Murray.
The format for 2010 ATP World Tour finals is rather simple. Top eight players get selected with the most countable Grand Slam points. These countable points include points earned in 2010 plus points earned at the 2009 Davis Cup final and the late-season
2009 Challengers played after the 2009 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. The players are divided into 2 groups, and 2 players come up from each group for the semi-finals. The tournament completes in a week's time. Prize money for men’s singles champion is $770,000
and $125,000 for the doubles champions. Nicolay Davydenko was the defending champion, but will not participate this year after failing to qualify for the event.
This has been a year of many twists and turns with a lot of shuffling in men’s rankings. This is the last chance for the eight superstars to prove a point in London this week. Rafael Nadal, the world number 1 will be trying to solidify his claim on the throne
of the world’s best player. This would happen after a year of severe injury problems, during which he let go of his number one ranking to Roger Federer. Many had simply written Nadal off this year. It seemed they had a point when in the first major down under
in Australia; he appeared jaded and afraid to test his knees. He retired in his match against Andy Murray while trailing by 2-0 sets.
To be continued in Part 2...
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