Rafael Nadal secures the year-end top ranking by improving to 2-0 in London with a win over Stanislas Wawrinka on Wednesday. Tomas Berdych gets his first victory of the week at the expense of David Ferrer.
(1) Rafael Nadal d. (7) Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6(5), 7-6(6)
Nadal assured himself of a spot in the semis of the World Tour Finals with his second consecutive straight-set victory on Wednesday afternoon. The Spaniard also improved to 12-0 lifetime against Wawrinka, 26-0 in total sets, and 6-0 in tiebreakers. Wawrinka had a set point at 6-5 in the second ‘breaker, but Nadal saved it with an overhead smash and won the next two points as well.
The victory also clinches a year-end world No. 1 ranking for the third time in Nadal’s career (2008 and 2010). Wawrinka, meanwhile, is still alive with a 1-1 record heading into the last day of Group A round-robin action.
“Today, it was more important secure the No. 1 at the end of the season,” Nadal explained. “(It is) one of the best things that I have done in my career, coming back to the No. 1 after three seasons. That’s very difficult in our sport, and the good thing is after two matches now, I can really be focused only on the tournament because the year-end (ranking) is over.”
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(5) Tomas Berdych d. (3) David Ferrer 6-4, 6-4
Berdych improved to 4-7 lifetime against Ferrer and avenged a recent Paris quarterfinal loss by prevailing in one hour and 23 minutes. The Czech broke serve at 4-4 in each of the two sets and he did not face a single break point the entire way. Berdych had lost to Wawrinka on Monday, but he remained alive thanks to his victory over Ferrer. The Spaniard, meanwhile, is mathematically eliminated.
“At this kind of level, with these kind of players, it’s not easy at all,” Berdych assured. “I’m very glad my game was better. I was playing well. My game-plan was working from beginning to the end. (I was) serving really good; a lot of positive things from today.”
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Did he practise after that?
Full transcript of Rafa’s interview on Nov 6th:
http://rafaelnadalfans.com/2013/11/07/an-interview-with-rafael-nadal-london-november-6-2013/#more-13032
Rafa felt after the US Open that he deserved to become world No.1.
I try not to think too far ahead with Rafa. I just want him to stay healthy, above all else. Is that is the case, then all things are possible. I would love to see him finally win the WTF. That would be a great way to cap what has been an unbelievable season.
I really do want him to win the 2014 AO. For one thing, he would gain a lot more points and that might take a little pressure off him as he defends all that he won this year. He has a chance to gain at the AO and Wimbledon. I think the extra week between RG and Wimbledon, will be helpful to Rafa.
We don’t know how long Rafa can keep this up. But hopefully his knee issues will be under control and he can play without pain.
I remember what Twinge kept saying on TT about Rafa being done, washed up, finished. I wish he was here so that I could rub all that Rafa has done in his face! That goes for chr18, too. But he would most likely have disappeared with Rafa’s success. That’s what they always did.
This has been really a dream come true! The best part has been sharing it with all of the great Rafa fans in our new home! 🙂
I had not thought of twinge for a while. He used to say that Rafa is boring and claycourt tournaments are boring. He didn’t seem to like Rafa’s unbelievable come-back last claycourt season and his Cinci hardcourt title so early in that come-back.
What would he have written about Rafa’s current hardcourt season? Perhaps: the most boring hardcourt season in the midst of the most boring come-back story :-).
I basically stopped trying to even have a conversation about Rafa with him. It’s not like I was going to change his mind. But Rafa has shown everyone just how wrong it was to write him off or say that his time is done.
Twinge said that it was the era of Djoker and Murray. As a Murray fan, I got why he would want Rafa’s time to be over but never agreed. I knew that Rafa had more to do in this sport. And he’s not done yet!
I think you read Twinge wrongly. He bark was worse than his bite, He liked ruffling feathers and by his own admission was prone to going over the top – particularly after a drink or two. He is a long term Andy fan (Deucy will confirm that takes its toll) and his sarcasm was in direct proportion to how well or badly Andy was faring. He could be very, very funny when he was on form.
Ed, you might have read the couple of comments Twinge and I exchange in the final days of TT, making up and all. Just before he had mention, not to me in particular, that his more biting comments had bee written under the influence of alcohol and pain medication. I didn’t find out what type of severe pain he suffers. I had no idea until then about the drink or the pills. Made me immediately reconsider some of my views of his comments. Still, he could have given me at least one hint when we started to lock horns. Especially when I openly objected at his threats to skin me alive and other charming messages. I wondered, when he made those threats, whether they were to be taken as just strong humor, but there was something more to them it seemed to me, the way his reactions were personal in the way they get when someone has really taken something personal. They were very biting. Which is why I started to feel he was a real bully and might have been one as a youth, and wrote as much. That was another opportunity for him to just give me at least one hint as to the state of mind he was in, regardless of anything at TT, when he was writing his ‘softer’ notes. Perhaps he was too stubborn or just enjoyed getting my goat. i forgave nearly all of this in heartbeat in those last days of TT when I learned about the physical pain etc. Still, those extreme comments were in my mind more violent than those innane and lame comments of the rabid commenters on TT, no matter how hard the latter tried to get a rise out of some of the rafans there.
In the end I think you’ll say, Ed, that I failed to realize from the start that I should take everything twinge wrote as various forms of humous, sarcasm in particular. And I did, nearly all of it. I just was not sure about the aggressive and bullying tone behind some if it. I still suspect that besides and entirely independent of his chronic pain he might also be carrying a lot of anger, and in the cocktail mix of Andy/Rafa + pain + pain medication + alcohol that anger came through unchecked in the midst of the sarcasm. The sarcasm, I agree, was consistently the best I’ve read on TT.
Like you @chloro, I had a particularly nasty exchange with @Twinge but “luckily” I realised during the exchange that he was not to be taken seriously at that point, it was just too extreme. I took the opposite path to his biliousness and it worked. The following day publicly apologised to me, I accepted his apology and were friends ever since, biting sarcasm and all…………..
Ah Twinge where are you? Pl come back. All is forgiven, Mom seriously ill, Dad sorry, everyone else in tears.
holdserve@November 8, 2013 at 3:09 pm
I got a headache from his/her angriness.