A Friday showdown in Paris between Andy Murray and Tomas Berdych will impact the battle for the No. 1 ranking and the race to the World Tour Finals. Quarterfinal action also features Milos Raonic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
(7) Tomas Berdych vs. (2) Andy Murray
The final spot in the World Tour Finals may come down to Murray vs. Berdych in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Masters on Friday. Murray, needless to say, is part of a much different race–for the No. 1 ranking in the world. But he will play a huge role in determining the London fates of Berdych and Dominic Thiem, with Berdych qualifying if he upsets Murray and Thiem going to the year-end championship for the first time if Murray wins (unless Jo-Wilfried Tsonga wins the title).
Current form, of course, heavily favors the second-ranked Scot. He has won six of his last eight tournaments and has continued his hot streak this week with defeats of Fernando Verdasco and Lucas Pouille. Berdych has slumped since Wimbledon and is out of the top 10 for the first time since the summer of 2010 (currently 11th). The Czech is still alive for London thanks to Paris victories over Joao Sousa and Gilles Simon. Berdych is a respectable 6-9 lifetime against Murray, but he has lost five in a row and has not defeated the three-time major champion since 2013. There is no reason to think Berdych’s losing streak against Murray won’t hit six by the end of Friday.
Pick: Murray in 2 losing 8-10 games
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(11) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. (4) Milos Raonic
Raonic and Tsonga will be facing each other for just the fifth time in their careers when they battle for a place in the Paris semifinals. The head-to-head series is tied up at two wins apiece, with Tsonga taking the first two in 2012 and 2013 before Raonic’s rise up the rankings coincided with straight-set victories over the Frenchman in 2014 and 2016 (most recently at the Madrid Masters). Tsonga has won each of their previous hard-court encounters, whereas Raonic’s victories have come on clay.
This matchup almost didn’t happen, as Tsonga not only got bageled in a set by Kei Nishikori on Thursday but also fought off two match points with Nishikori serving at 5-3, 40-15 in the third. The 2008 Paris champion ended up prevailing 0-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) in exactly two hours. Raonic has struggled since finishing runner-up at Wimbledon, but he still registers at an impressive fifth in the rankings and has picked up Paris wins over Pablo Carreno Busta and Pablo Cuevas (the latter in a three-set contest that lasted a mere one hour and 22 minutes). With home-court advantage, Tsonga should be able to get the best of an opponent who has cooled off since they last squared off this spring.
Pick: Tsonga in 3
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who ya got?
Tsonga in three and Murray in two losing 5-7 games maybe 8-10. Either way Murray should win in straights.
Murray in 2 was my pick. Berdych played well – until the first set tie break and most of the second set.
Tsonga, mamma mia. He started slow again and lost the first set badly to Raonic. Jo needs a break right now at 5-4 and take the 2nd set. But Raonic is solid and ruthless. It’s not clear he can get a break. The Paris crowd hasn’t had enough to get fired up about. But if he can win this set…come on Jo!!
LOL. 6-1 BERDYCH IN THE BREAKER AND LOSES!! Ha. Now Murray a win from number one in the world. Wow. Tsonga loses sadly now we’ve got Isner vs Cilic and Raonic vs Murray.
Tsonga is OUT.
It means that Rafa won’t drop out of the top 8 in the Race. Rafa has qualified for the season finale (whatever has been its name) for the 12th straight year! Vamos Rafa!!!!!!!!!!!! ? ? ?
Yay! Doesn’t mean a thing but it makes me happy anyway.
Name? It’s that end-of-the-year-thing-where-you-actually-get-to-see doubles-played on TV!
Ramara (AT 11:41 PM),
It means a lot – storytellers&writers lost their opportunity to tell&write 24/7 that Rafa didn’t make it for the first time… ? 🙂
They didn’t write your made up story with no facts to back it up.
Hilarious.
It will be an Andy vs Milos SF. Andy leads h2h 8-3. They played many times in 2016 and Andy won them all. The most memorable was AO. Andy needs those SF points!
Cilic leads Isner 6-0 in the other SF match-up.
Dominic Thiem qualifies for London. Cast of characters is all set.
Actually, Thiem didn’t qualify, he is No.9 in the Race. But he will be replacing Rafa, who qualified. 🙂
The Race:
http://www.atpworldtour.com/en
As augustas link states clearly saying that Thiem has QUALIFIED.
(bo mention of Rafa qualifying on the page linked however)
Well I wish Rafa was playing in London! add Federer and Delpo, too. I’m not sold on the list that is going.
Thiem did it!
RT @TennisTV: #berdych can no longer qualify for the @ATPWorldTour finals. Now only #Tsonga can stop #thiem https://t.co/GbmPFQlhm8
ATP announces Thiem QUALIFIES for WTF!!!
“The 23-year-old Thiem will make his debut at The O2 and is the first Austrian singles player to qualify for the event since former World No. 1 Thomas Muster in 1997. ”
Congrats Thiem!!!
(Note: Only eight players are mentioned in the ATP press release as having qualified. Nadal wasn’t mentioned because he officially pulled out despite what someone wants to believe. It will not be in his career stats.)
http://www.barclaysatpworldtourfinals.com/en/news-and-media/tennis/thiem-qualifies-for-2016-barclays-atp-world-tour-finals
Great for Thiem to qualify. Let’s hope the guy ends the season the way he started it with a good performance in London. I get a bad feelings he gonna go winless based off of the way he’s playing. Hopefully he doesn’t.
Thiem ‘qualified’ as an alternate.
No. rules srate there will be two alternates neither of which are the eight that qualified.
Fail again. Fail harder My fan.
Berdych and Goffin will be the two alternates at the WTF assuming they accept.
The eight qualified players like Thiem for example are obligated to play.
Hawkeye – I *think* Augusta was referring to the fact that Thiem, as no.9, is only there because Rafa isn’t. Had he not been injured, even without playing Basel and Paris, Rafa would be there instead as he’s 85 ranking points ahead of Thiem.
Arthur (AT 11:25 AM),
You are correct! 🙂
It won’t officially count as he pulled out BEFORE qualifying, but technically he ends the main season ahead of Thiem, meaning he could have played had he wanted too.
Arthur (AT 11:29 AM),
You are right! 🙂
It’s the same as Serena. She’s no. 2 but she didn’t play Singapore but she could have at any point. She had plenty of earned points as a cushion between herself and the rest of the top ten; she wasn’t likely to lose her ranking. Rafa’s #8. Whether he remains #8 after London, who knows. Thiem hasn’t shown much since before Wimbledon. Actually Berdych or Sock, or even Struff would perform better in London than Thiem, if Paris is any measure.
Arthur: See you are keeping everyone on their toes 😉
I believe you’re new here, if so welcome
Agree with you Arthur.
Thiem qualified for WTF along with the other seven qualifiers and two alternates.
Because Rafa withdrew, he didn’t officially qualify nor will any career stats say that he did.
But that’s not what Augusta claimed.
Berdych took Murray by surprise. Like many people I was assuming it would be an easy victory but Berdy played some of his best tennis in quite a while. After losing the TB and being broken in the first game of the second set, it would have been understandable had he thrown in the towel at that point. Kudos to him for keeping the second set competitive to the bitter end:
I like the way Berdych played despite his choke in the TB. I think he’s slimmer now and moves better and is more willing to move forward. I guess that’s the positive effect of Ivanisevic, the same effect he had on Cilic that propelled Cilic to a slam winner.
I do hope Berdych wins a slam in his career, not at Rafa’s expense of course.