World Tour Finals Day 2: Doubles again provides lone drama

For the second straight day at the World Tour Finals, only one of four matches went the three-set distance.

It came at the beginning of the night session, when No. 1 doubles player in the world Marcelo Melo and Ivan Dodig went up against the French duo of Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert. Somewhat surprisingly, Mahut and Herbert surged ahead 6-3, 5-2 and soon served for the match at 5-3 in the second. But Herbert got tight, double-faulting three times in one game–including twice in a row on match points. With momentum finally in hand, Dodig and Melo stormed back for a 3-6, 7-6(4), 10-7 victory.

Although the other three matches progressed in entirely routine fashion, there was plenty on offer for fans at the O2.

One day after his loss to Roger Federer, Tomas Berdych was back on the practice court with alternate Richard Gasquet.
[tweet https://twitter.com/TennGrand/status/666251224790994944]

Jean-Julien Roger and Horia Tecau vs. Nenad Zimonjic and Marcin Matkowski:

Rafael Nadal warmed up for his 6-3, 6-2 win over Stan Wawrinka by hitting with a practice partner and having Uncle Toni feed to him.
[tweet https://twitter.com/TennGrand/status/666302040834985984]
[tweet https://twitter.com/TennGrand/status/666302873047838720]

Nadal wins:
[tweet https://twitter.com/TennGrand/status/666370723808677888]

Wawrinka, who was criticized for a lack of effort in the second set, did not go so far as to admit that in his press conference. But he did say that “behaving badly [in] the second set” was a problem, along with “going too fast” during his service games.

Nadal said that surface in London is not playing as fast as he would like it.

“I don’t play very well [on] slow surfaces,” he explained. “I play better (on a) little bit faster surfaces; not slow. People think because I had a lot of success on clay (that) I play better on the slower surfaces. Is not true that I play better because the surface is slow. I prefer to have (a) little bit faster surface…. When you are playing well, you are playing well (on) all the surfaces. When you are playing bad, you are playin bad (on) all the surfaces.”

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