Andy Murray will kick off his 2015 World Tour Finals campaign against David Ferrer on Monday. Murray recently cruised past Ferrer in Paris, but the Scot has since been practicing on clay in advance of the Davis Cup final.
Andy Murray and David Ferrer will be facing each other for the 18th time in their careers and for the second time this month when they clash during round-robin action at the World Tour Finals on Monday afternoon.
Murray extended his lead in the head-to-head series to 11-6, including 9-2 on hard courts, by trouncing Ferrer 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Masters. Their only other encounter in 2015 came on a more favorable surface for Ferrer at the French Open, but Murray still got the job done and advanced to the semis with a 7-6(4), 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 victory. Ferrer last prevailed 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 last season in Shanghai but has since lost four in a row to the world No. 3.
After briefly threatening to skip the year-end championship, Murray has decided to turn up at the 02. Still, there is no secret that the Scot’s primary objective is the Davis Cup final between Great Britain and Belgium the following week. The Belgians are hosting the tie on clay, so Murray has been practicing on the red stuff–not on indoor hard courts–at Queen’s Club.
As for his current form, Murray is 9-2 since the U.S. Open with a semifinal showing in Shanghai and a runner-up performance in Paris (lost to Novak Djokovic on both occasions). He is 68-12 for his 2015 campaign, which includes four titles–and two at the Masters 1000 level (Madrid and Montreal).
Ferrer surged into London despite missing several months this summer because of an elbow injury. The 33-year-old is 55-13 for the season and although he has endured a few hiccups since returning at the U.S. Open, his comeback has been nothing short of outstanding. In addition to his runner-up finish in Paris, Ferrer captured titles in Kuala Lumpur and Vienna while also reaching the Beijing semis.
Playing one match as an alternate last season, Ferrer lost to eventual semifinalist Kei Nishikori in three sets. The Spaniard is 8-11 lifetime at the year-end championship and he finished runner-up to Roger Federer in 2007.
Murray is a modest 10-9 lifetime in six World Tour Finals appearances and he has never made it past the semifinals. He will be trying to make amends for his most recent match at the O2, a 6-0, 6-1 blowout loss during round-robin action against Federer.
This is a great opportunity for the underdog because Murray is focused on Davis Cup and has been practicing on clay. In the end, though, the crowd favorite will likely find his game–and his motivation–and have too much offense for Ferrer on an indoor hard court.
Pick: Murray in 3
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Murray is questionable in this tournament. With the Davis Cup final looming, Andy could get distracted and lose a set or an entire match at any point. Or, his competitive instincts could take over and he goes the distance.
Murray should win this match in 2.
But, voted for Ferrer to get a set.
They’ve always had close contests so it’s a toss up on who will win.
Muzz in three.
Murray in 3 sets.
Murray doesnt give a crap. He has his eyes on the Davis Cup.
Is Murray not capable of doing well at the WTF and beat the Belgians?
@ Orchid. Well said. The question mark is how far he is prepared to go. He also would like to be Y/E No.2. However, to be certain of that he needs two wins this week I believe.
There in lies the conundrum.
#Patriosm v Ambition
Ferrer DFs on SP. 2 DFs in the last game.
8 DFs!!!!
Davia Ferrupova.
He had similar serving woes against Tomic at IW – at 11.5%. He had some 7 – 8% DF rates too during the season. So this was one of his worst days, not unlike IW.
https://tenngrand.com/2015/11/14/world-tour-finals-preview-and-prediction-murray-vs-ferrer/comment-page-1/#comment-227941
That’s correct. It was his worst day in two years. Well above his average of 4% this year and 3% last year.
Like I said.
Good workmanlike win for Muzz. In the circumstances better than many anticipated.
Ferrer not at his best and his serve (or rather lack of good serving) was his undoing.
Towards the end of the match I thought he was moving awkwardly – does he have an injury of some kind?
Nope
baseline play was even to me. Serve differential made the difference.
It’s because of the pressure caused by Muzza’s ROS.
Ferrer’s serve was giving him problems all season, not just in this match. The commentators said its his ball toss that caused his serving woes.
Today Ferrer double faulted on 12.7% of his service points, his most DFs by percentge of points served this year.
Over the last 52 weeks, Ferrer has averaged DF on 4% of his service points.
So, on average, today was over 3X worse than average this year.
By comparison, he averaged DF on 3% of his service points in 2014.
In other words, today was his worst service day in terms of DFs in the last two years.
http://www.tennisabstract.com/cgi-bin/player.cgi?p=DavidFerrer
I have to revise my earlier thoughts on Muzz and O2. I think Muzz is not going to tank any matches. He is practicing on clay to prepare for DC . Playing at O2 will therefore not hamper his preparations for DC and may even help by giving him match practice and possibly the winning momentum.
^^I like that scenario.
He’s also eager to secure the YE no.2 position for the first time in his career. He needs one more RR win to move to 8870 points and that’ll see him ahead of Fed even if Fed wins this WTF without losing a match.