World Tour Finals preview and prediction: Murray vs. Wawrinka

November 18, 2015 Ricky Match previews 133

Murray 2The last semifinal spot at the O2 will come down to the final round-robin match on Friday night when Andy Murray goes up against Stan Wawrinka. Both players are currently 1-1 and the winner will finish second in Group Ilie Nastase behind Rafael Nadal.

Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka will be battling for a place in the semis of the World Tour Finals on Friday night in London.

Shockingly, this is their first meeting in more than two years. They last faced each other at the 2013 U.S. Open, where Wawrinka rolled 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 to make the head-to-head series a more even 8-6 in Murray’s favor. The Scot has won six of their eight hard-court encounters, but their last four such showdowns have been split 2-2. Their only previous indoor collision came seven years ago in Marseille, where Murray prevailed 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-1.

Each man’s round-robin fate at the O2 will be sealed by the outcome of this match. Both Murray and Wawrinka are 1-1, while Rafael Nadal has already wrapped up Group Ilie Nastase at 2-0 (with head-to-head advantages over Murray and Wawrinka), while David Ferrer is eliminated at 0-2. Thus the winner of this title will be the No. 2 qualifier from the foursome.

Murray opened in decent enough form, taking care of Ferrer 6-4, 6-4 on Monday afternoon. Two days later, however, the second seed was reduced to little more than an innocent bystander in a 6-4, 6-1 pasting by Nadal.

Wawrinka is trending in the opposite direction. The third-ranked Swiss seemed lost in just about every way in a 6-3, 6-2 setback against Nadal before recovering to beat Ferrer 7-5, 6-2. Wawrinka continued to struggle early and trailed the Spaniard 5-2 in set one, but he finally found the range and overpowered his opponent the rest of the way en route to a convincing victory.
Wawa 2
The principal question heading into this one involves how motivated–or not–Murray is to stick around on an indoor hard court in London instead of going back to clay-court practice in advance of next week’s Davis Cup final between Great Britain and Belgium. The British No. 1 spent the previous week honing his game on the slow stuff, made a successful surface transition against Ferrer, but then looked borderline lifeless versus Nadal.

Count Wawrinka among those pondering the answer.

“It’s tough to say what he’s thinking,” the reigning French Open champion said of Murray. “If he’s completely focused or not. If he’s already thinking too much about Davis Cup. It’s impossible to know exactly what we can expect from him for Friday. For sure if I look the match today, I think was a little bit flat. For sure the fact he practiced so much after Paris on clay to get the rhythm doesn’t help him to feel completely fresh this week. We’ll see.”

Based on the Davis Cup factor and their respective performances on Wednesday, Wawrinka has to like his chance. And he may do Murray a favor by sending him on his way to Belgium.

Pick: Wawrinka in 3

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133 Comments on World Tour Finals preview and prediction: Murray vs. Wawrinka

  6. My picks before any matches started.
    Group: Nastase
    Murray d. Ferrer in 3
    Nadal d. Wawrinka in 3
    Nadal d. Murray in 3
    Wawrinka d. Ferrer in 3
    Nadal d. Ferrer in 3. Friday match. Rafa in 2, more like it.
    Wawrinka d. Murray in 3. Friday match. Stan in 3. Go Stan!
    …………………………………
    Nadal: 3-0
    Wawrinka: 2-1
    Murray 1-2
    Ferrer 0-3

    Reply

  7. Even though I would love to see wawrinka win, sadly he can’t. His game is riddled with way to many errors at the moment. Yes he was able to get by Ferrer, but only because he cant push stan back in the court. Its too sad wawrinka only saves his best tennis for majors. Murray will easily outrally wawrinka on this one.

    Murray in 2.

    Reply

    • Well ok but just remember that your membership in the Tenngrand Pick’em Club is still in the probation period.

      Just be careful that you don’t claim picks after the match that never really happened or use qualifiers such as “If he plays well…” for example.

      #HereToHelps

      Reply

  17. Don’t care that much who wins. For DC purposes don’t want Muzz wearing himself out , but he’s the boss, not me 🙂
    Good match!

    Reply

      • @9:57 pm
        —might not visit this site, I think that Mirka might.—
        ===
        .
        Oh, now I understand – that’s why someone has made huge attempts to justify her behavior at the 2014 WTF! 😆
        (Mrs. Mirka couldn’t keep her mouth shut during the Fed-Waw match at the WTF and called Wawrinka ‘crybaby’ after he complained about that.)

        Reply

      • Listen up people, do you hear there?

        Someone thinks that being a fanatical secretary has to make them understand about a Rafan and yet it’s nobody’s business.

        I’m curious why you don’t criticize your blind fanatical “fan” when we both say the same thing?

        And it makes me wonder.

        Reply

  24. It appears that Stan has played himself into some decent form in this tournament. I got home after the first set and have seen most of the second set. Finally Andy got one break back. Can he get something going here?

    Reply

    • It’s all very uncertain at this point. There for awhile, I thought Andy would go for it — even if Stan is playing better than vs Rafa, but let’s see if Stan can serve it out…

      Reply

  25. One thing I did want to say was that Darren Cahill said that they should changed the surface for this tournament. Brad Gilbert joined in and agreed. Cahill said they could have it be on clay. But they both agreed that the surface should be changed up. That surprised me because it’s what Rafa has been saying.

    Murray holds his serve and Stan will have another shot at serving for the match.

    Reply

  30. I keep trying to find something to like about WaWa. It’s not his sportsmanship that’s for sure. I trust Federer will pull him down a peg or to tomorrow.

    Reply

  33. That was some ugly stuff from Murray. He had his chances to tie it up in that second set. But overall Stan played better, although he did really get tight near the end. I don’t know if it’s going to be good enough to beat Fed.

    The tennis channel wasn’t showing the match, so I checked out ESPN and low and behold, they were showing it. They are taking over from this point on.

    Reply

    • That happened to me yesterday, NNY! I got caught out watching some tennis profile on TC for a set of the 2nd singles match! ESPN must have WTF for the weekend..

      Reply

      • ratcllff,

        Oh, it’s good to know that I am not the only one. I saw the discussion here and checked the score online, so I knew the match was still going on. Then it just hit me that maybe it was on ESPN. So I went to that channel and there it was!

        I don’t know how they expect people to know that they will be stepping in to broadcast the WTF matches from the semis to the end. Rafa and Ferrer were on the tennis channel this morning, so that made it even more confusing.

        Yes, ESPN said that they will be showing the semifinal matches tomorrow. So I will know which channel to watch! 🙂

        Reply

  34. As far as H2H goes for Stan and Fed, looking at their overall doesn’t count. I go by Stan post AO 2014: 4-2 Fed ( or anyone else for that matter). Clay wins, okay, but Stan is starting to look comfortable on these indoor conditions, as he did in Paris getting to the semi’s there; plus, he was swinging more freely v Andy. Magnus Norman will prepare his charge successfully.

    Reply

  35. What did I tell you…Wawa not committed?! Wawa not interested?! nope…Wawa outplayed by Rafa?! Yes… 🙂

    and those TWO beautiful ladies in the box supporting him…wow…he sure will fight in the semis…that’s gonna be an interesting one…

    Reply

    • The tennis channel commentators talked about how Stan just disappeared against Rafa in the second set of their match. But what do they know! Jim Courier and Paul Annacone know a thing or two about what goes on during a match. They have no reason to lie!

      But some people just cannot let it go. Bringing it up over and over, trying to make the same inaccurate point over and over about how Stan played in that match with Rafa. If anyone thinks that 35 UE’s in a 2 set match with 38% second serve points won, is a true reflection of Stan’s game, then they must be living in another universe.

      Reply

      • no, the reason why I brought it up is people saying how Stan did not care, how he was uninterested and did not respect people paying moneys to watch the match. Stan responded to those accusations by saying that they should have been in his shoes to know how it was difficult to fight against Rafa’s top spins…Stan was obviously neutralized in that match and could not hit his natural winners…why don’t people admit that? Why saying that Stan disappeared and then went on to win both matches against tough opponents one of which is current No2…

        I understand the so called experts who will attack Stan because they expected Stan to make a thriller of it and beat a non-confident Rafa at the end…they did not expect Rafa to come up with good tactics that worked against Swiss…but what I can not understand is people constantly ignoring the fact that Stan was outplayed by Rafa…

        Yesterday, in the second set against Ferry Rafa had first serve % of as low as 46% and yet won the set…Wawa had 1st serve % in the match with Andy at LOW 45% and WON the match…so it means nothing…obviously Wawa was out of his comfort zone when playing Rafa and that’s it…you will just have to live with it and let it go…if you do not like me saying that then just ignore it…

        Reply

      • nats, I too feel frustrated that Rafa is being undermined. Had Nole beaten Stan with that scoreline the same people would be worshipping at his altar saying he’s got no weaknesses and Stan couldn’t compete with him.

        Stan knew Rafa had neutralised his game plan that’s why he kept berating his bench because their strategy wasn’t working. Why are people so reluctant to see that Rafa beating Stan is the norm, their h2h going into that match was 15:3.

        When Stan is on the back foot, he sulks. He started sulking against Ferrer but Ferrer handed him the 1st set by failing to serve for it and he capitalised on it.

        The commentators have their own agenda. Miles Maclagan said that wasn’t the match they were expecting so they are just disappointed.

        #Djokovic is the Holy Grail in some people’s eyes

        Reply

      • how is paul annacone a so-called expert? :s the guy is damn good.

        Stan was outplayed by Rafa, of course . I was there watching it live. Very excited. But, no secret that stan was misfiring that day. He missed some really easy forehand and yeah, in the end he was just going for DTL forehands just for the sake of ending points. In the presser he said ‘it was just a bad day in the office’. It was a combination of both things. Stan is a heavyweight baseliner so not easy to blow him off the court like that. Rafa was very good that day but it was not like vintage rafa to be honest.

        Reply

      • Some people just can’t bear the fact that Rafa won his group 3:0 and their supreme god – Djokovic – lost a match. That’s why they are trying to take away from Rafa’s win over Stan.

        Reply

      • No, djokovic was GOOD againt Nishikori but the lopsided scoreline was because nishikori was misfiring a lot. It was a combination of nishikori misfiring and djokovic being solid. Usually that’s how it is.

        Reply

      • Actions speak louder than words. Some people who claim to be Rafa fans spend a lot of their time putting him down. Why can’t they just say they don’t admire him as a player? Instead of celebrating his great win, why spend time trying to pour cold water on it? No fan behaves like that.

        If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck.

        Reply

      • The words ‘analyzing a match’ are beyond your comprehension? I celebrated a lot but I also have fun discussing tennis. I did not celebrate when federer beat djokovic because I don’t care but I analyzed the match because I like that. It was again a combination of Fed playing very well and Novak not too well. Same goes for pretty much every match. haven’t had the time, otherwise, I would be previewing more matches with Ricky because I like doing that .

        Celebrating as a fan and analyzing a match are two totally different things.

        Reply

      • Analyzing a match doesn’t mean you should ignore the facts. It’s not something that happens on the odd occasion, it happens far too frequently that’s why I try my best to avoid reading some comments.

        No Rafa fan who has been waiting all year for him to get into form will watch that match and write it off as Stan not trying.

        I didn’t see anyone analyzing the Djokovic/Kei match.

        Reply

  37. I have every right to tell you to cease and desist when you are making this site unpleasant. . It is not your job to decide what I can say. You are not the moderator.

    Reply

    • No you are harassing myself, vamosrafa and hawkeye with your rude and erroneous comments. There are site rules here now and you can’t just go after people for no reason. You do not have the right to tell anyone what they can or cannot say. That’s Ricky’s job because it’s his site.

      Please stop parroting what I am saying and stop instigating. I am done with this conversation and will not answer if you choose to continue with your insults and disrespect.

      Reply

    • nativenewyorker7 (at 5:57 am),
      — You do not have the right to tell anyone what they can or cannot say.—
      ===
      .
      This applies to you too, NNY!

      Reply

  38. Andy Murray says his team can be a distraction after ordering them away for clash with Stan Wawrinka at The O2

    Andy Murray lost 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 to Stan Wawrinka at ATP World Tour Finals
    World No 2 Murray was knocked out in the round-robin stage at The O2
    Murray showed signs of frustration on the court at his performance, smashing his racket towards the end of the match

    By STUART FRASER FOR MAILONLINE
    PUBLISHED: 23:54, 20 November 2015 | UPDATED: 00:39, 21 November 2015

    Andy Murray admitted he felt it best that his team did not sit courtside during his straight-sets defeat by Stan Wawrinka at the ATP World Tour Finals on Friday.

    World No 2 Murray was knocked out in the round-robin stage at The O2 as he lost what was effectively a quarter-final shootout 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 to Roland Garros champion Wawrinka.

    Eyebrows were raised at the start of the match when it was noticed that Murray’s courtside player box was completely empty, with his team – including wife Kim and coach Jonas Bjorkman – sitting together in a higher position well away from the court.
    Andy Murray admitted he felt it best that his team did not sit courtside at The O2 Arena on Friday

    Andy Murray admitted he felt it best that his team did not sit courtside at The O2 Arena on Friday. His team – including wife Kim and coach Jonas Bjorkman – sat together in a position well away from court. Scottish world No 2 Murray was knocked out in the round-robin stage against Stan Wawrinka

    Murray’s courtside box is often the focus for his ire during matches, particularly so during his defeat by Rafael Nadal on Wednesday, and afterwards he explained his decision to ask his team to not sit so close.

    ‘With my team sitting behind, I just felt like sometimes when the box is extremely close to the court, I sometimes can find that a distraction,’ said Murray. ‘So I thought it would be better to have them sit a bit further away from the court. That was it.’

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-3327887/Andy-Murray-hugely-disappointed-mistakes-against-Stan-Wawrinka-crashes-O2.html#ixzz3s7XbQZk4
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    Reply

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