How apt that one of the most lacklustre ATP World Tour Finals should end without a match to decide the champion.
An hour before he was to meet Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer announced his withdrawal with a back injury.
Fans, hoping to finally get their money's worth after a week of blowouts, had to be content with an exhibition match between the Serb and Andy Murray, and then a doubles game.
For the first time since 1931, when Frankie Shields retired before his title clash against Sidney Wood at Wimbledon, the men’s final of a major tennis tournament – the four grand slam titles and the year-ending championships – was not played.
There were several other unpleasant stats compiled in London over the past week.
Last year, eight of the 12 round-robin matches were decided in three sets, and eight of the 32 sets played were decided by tiebreakers.
In 2012, seven of the group matches went to three sets and in 2011, that number was eight.
In 2010, only one group match went to three sets, but there were no bagels (6-0) and only two breadsticks (6-1), while in 2009, the year Nikolay Davydenko beat Juan Martin Del Potro in the final despite the presence of the Big Four in the field, eight group matches were decided in three sets.
This year, only two of the group matches went into three sets and there was only one tiebreaker. Two of the 26 sets played were bagels and there were eight breadsticks.
The high proportion of one-sided matches in the group stages means the winners have won almost 70 per cent of the games played (154 of the 221) and the losers have won an average of 5.6 games per match.
Those are the highest and lowest figures, respectively, in the history of the tournament for the round-robin stages.
There are several reasons for those dismal figures.
Fatigue is being cited as one of the main culprits. Four of the men in that elite field of eight – Murray, Kei Nishikori, Tomas Berdych and Milos Raonic – qualified for the championship on October 30-31 after a mad dash around the globe to earn the points that would take them to London.
Murray played six tournaments in six weeks – 23 matches across four countries and two continents in 37 days – to get those much-needed ranking points. Nishikori appeared in four tournaments and played 14 matches during that period. Berdych played five tournaments and 17 matches in just over a month to get to London, and Raonic appeared in five tournaments and 15 matches in five weeks before his arrival in Great Britain. Understandably, all four appeared exhausted. Raonic was forced to pull out of the tournament with a muscle tear after losing his two matches. Berdych and Murray could win only one of their three matches. The Scot was embarrassed 6-0, 6-1 by Federer, and the Czech was drubbed 6-1, 6-1 by Stan Wawrinka.
“He seems to have not much left in the tank. I am assuming he is on the verge of burnout,” commentator John McEnroe said about Murray after his loss to Federer.
So perhaps there is a case for looking at the scheduling. A gap of one week between the Paris Masters and the World Tour Finals is probably not enough for aching limbs to recover, especially not at the end of a gruelling season.
Having said that, in the previous two years, the year-ending championship was held in the week after the Paris Masters.
So there are probably other reasons for the disappointing fare in London at the O2 Arena this year.
The absence of Rafael Nadal could be one, as well as Murray’s crisis of confidence. Perhaps, the presence of three first-timers – Nishikori, Raonic and Cilic – also played a part.
“Maybe, when I walked into the stadium, I was nervous,” Nishikori said. “The stadium is huge. I try not to look up too much, because there was too many people on the top.”
Djokovic, after beating Cilic 6-1, 6-1 said: “His debut in the World Tour Finals has gotten [the] best out of him in terms of his nerves.”
Nerves, then, could have been the biggest cause of the snooze fest in London. Unlike the grand slam events, there is no time at the World Tour Finals to gain confidence against modest opponents before you meet the big guys.
That also explains why two of the most experienced campaigners – Djokovic and Federer – made it to the final.
They have been two of the best for a long time and the lopsided head-to-head between them and the other five in London (excluding Murray) testifies to that.
Simply put, the cream came to the top.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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