The ATP’s annual fastest draw ceremony wasted no time in producing a brutal Group B at the World Tour Finals. Proceedings took place in London on Monday afternoon as the two groups for the year-end championship were revealed.
With only eight players in the field Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer already assured of their respective places in Group A and Group B, only six men were left to be drawn. After just a few minutes, Djokovic found himself with a seemingly favorable draw. He will contest round-robin matches against Stan Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych, and Marin Cilic. Federer is joined by Kei Nishikori, Andy Murray, and Milos Raonic.
Cilic, the U.S. Open champion, was on hand for the proceedings and was asked prior to the draw if he would prefer being in Djokovic’s group or in Federer’s. Instead of avoiding the question like most players would, the Croat answered it point blank.
“I would rather be in Roger’s group,” Cilic admitted.
And why not? The world No. 9 has not been good against either one, but he scored his first-ever win over Federer in the U.S. Open semifinals with a dominant 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 performance. Cilic is 1-5 lifetime against the Swiss, whereas he is a dreadful 0-10 versus Djokovic.
Of course, Cilic is not alone in his struggles against the Serb. The other two Group A competitors–Wawrinka and Berdych–are almost as woeful. Wawrinka is 3-15 in 18 meetings with Djokovic and Berdych is 2-16. That means Djokovic is a combined 41-5 in his career vs. his three round-robin adversaries.
Federer, meanwhile, owns a winning record at the expense of just one of his Group B opponents (Raonic, against whom the 17-time major champion is 6-1). At the same time, Federer has a losing record against none of the three. He is 11-11 vs. Murray and 2-2 vs. Nishikori.
Nishikori and Murray will open the singles action on Sunday afternoon. Federer and Raonic will wrap up Day 1 of Group B action on Sunday night in a rematch of a recent Paris quarterfinal, won by Raonic 7-6(5), 7-5. Monday afternoon will see Wawrinka face Berdych, while Djokovic vs. Cilic headlines the Monday night session.
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who ya got?
Novak is now looking more like his normal self as we approach the last big event of the 2014 tennis year. I am liking his chances here. I think that it will probably be Novak and Fed in the final, but it will be interesting to see if someone else can get through. Fed has the tougher path.
Ricky,
Sorry but I guess I am the only one who was interested enough to comment!
As usual with any of these grouping, it’s not just the rank of the player, but how they match up against one another. If Kei is healthy, and that’s a big if, he can beat anyone in his group. As for Andy, I think he ran out of gas in Paris. Milos’ game, as usual, will depend on how he’s serving. Roger is incredibly motivated to win this tournament. He’s comfortable at the O2 and the surface, not to mention the crowd, favors him. With the exception of Milos, I think any of the 3 could win that group, but that Roger will more than likely do so.
As for Novak’s group, I can’t see anyone but Novak winning that one.
Novak over Roger in the final.
Semis:
Novak over Andy.
Roger over Cilic.
Final:
Roger over Novak.
NID.
If it does turn out to be Novak and Fed in the final, then I pick Novak for the win.
Nice to see the thoughts from jpacnw and hawkeye!
yes, novak more likely to win the final. But it’s indoor tennis and fed is playing well these days. It will be a tough contest .
Well I do think that federer will not have it easy in his group. Both Murray and Nishikori (assuming he is healthy) will be really tough ones for him. Raonic just beat him so the canadian will have the self-belief against Roger.
Quite possible that roger that lose two matches to Nishi and Andy but keeping in view all factors, fed is still the overall favorite in his group but as JPACNW said, the group is sort of open.
Djokovic not finishing at the top of his group will be quite surprising. Djokovic owns berdych…wawrinka has been in shabby form of late and Cilic has been topsy turvy since the USO. Cilic’s game does not stack up that well against Novak’s but he is able to play at the level he showed at USO, he’l have his chances against anyone.
Aside from novak, all three members of that group are not easy to predict for this tournament…except or berdych perhaps..
SFs – Nole over Roger, Andy over Big Bird
Final – Nole over Andy.
Nole not to drop a set throughout.
SFs – Nole over Roger, Muzz over Big Bird
Final – Nole over Muzz
Nole not to drop a set throughout