ATP TOUR – After Shanghai the men’s ATP tour tournaments moved to Europe with the latest finals on Sunday Oct 26. In Basel Switzerland, two Croatian players found themselves playing in the semi-finals. The strong serving Ivo Karlovic lost to Roger Federer who entered his 11th Swiss Open Final with a tough three set win 7-6(8), 3-6, 6-3. In the other semi-final Rafael Nadal’s winner, the wild card and 17-year-old youngster No. 124 player in the world Borna Coric lost in three sets to David Goffin 6- 4, 3-6, 6-3.
The home-town hero Roger Federer stayed remarkable in the finals of the Swiss Open and cruised to an easy win of 6-2, 6-2 over Belgium’s David Goffin. With that victory he increased his chances of overtaking Novak Djokovic for the year-end world No.1 spot. The sixth time Basel champion has won all of his last 12 matches, coming off a Shanghai Masters win and he has moved to within 500 points of Djokovic in the ATP standings.
On the other hand, Novak Djokovic was busy with family matters last week. His wife Jelena gave birth to their first child, Stefan. He is expected to play Paris Masters and will try to defend the title and fight to stay the World’s No. 1 player.
For another top player, sadly the year had to end earlier than expected. Nadal’s quarterfinal loss in Basel was the Spaniard’s last match of the season, as he will undergo appendix surgery on November 3rd. The 14-time Grand Slam title winner will therefore miss November’s ATP World Tour Finals in London. Nadal’s withdrawal means the player ranked ninth in the final ATP Race to London rankings will make it through to the season-ending final at the O2 Arena.
ATP Valencia
In Valencia, Spain, Andy Murray faced-off against Tommy Robredo in the Finals of the half a million-dollar tournament. In the semi-final Murray beat David Ferrer with 6-4, 7-5 while Robredo had a close-match victory over Chardy 7-6(7), 7-6(2).
The finals of Valencia saw a drama that went over 3 hrs and 20 minutes. Andy Murray had a tough time against the crowd favorite, Spanish Robredo. Murray was one set down 3-7 and pushed into the second-set tiebreak, having to defend two match points and fight his way into the third set by taking the tiebreak and winning the second set 7-6(7).
At 3-3 in the third set Murray’s second set victory momentum seemed to have warn off as the Spaniard took advantage of an early break only to have Murray break him back for 4-4. Both players played a very physical match, with long rallies and pushing each other to the limit. At 5-4 up Andy Murray had a match point on Robredo’s serve but he wasn’t able to use it by playing very defensively. The marathon match went into the tiebreak where both players had match points but it wasn’t until 10-8 in the tiebreak when Andy Murray won the last long rally and fell to the ground in exhaustion. Both players stumbled to the net, barely walked and leaned on the net for some time, amazed that the match has finished.
It is always sad to see a winner in a match like this but someone had to win, and this time Murray had the upper hand. He will compete in next week’s Paris Masters, which is the final ranking event of the season. Murray moved into eighth place in the race to the London Final.
Next for the best man on the tour is the ATP Masters 1000 in Paris, followed by the London O2 Arena ATP Finals starting Nov 9.
Vlatka Jovanovi? is an ex-professional WTA ranked tennis player and an independent broadcaster journalist.
