TheSportsCampus

There was high drama at the O2 Arena on Thursday as the calculators were called out to determine the semi-finalists from Group A of the ATP World Tour Finals after 5 hours of pulsating action left Roger Federer, Juan Martin del Potro and Andy Murray locked at 2 wins and 1 loss apiece at the end of the round robin stage of the competion. With the number of sets won and lost by each player also identical, qualification came down to the efficiency of their wins - the number of games won and lost.

Roger Federer emerged on top of the group with a 44 - 40 margin, with US Open champion Del Potro joining the legendary Swiss in them last four on the back of a 45 - 43 record to Murray's 44 - 43! Sadly for the partisan home crowd, the ir favourite was knocked out of the competition by one game!

The day started well for Andy Murray in his match with plucky Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, breaking serve in the 9th game of the opening set and then hanging on to a tight service game to clinch the opening set 6-4. Murray had plenty of opportunities to take the match in straight sets, an outcome that would have guaranteed him a semi-final berth, but he fluffed seven break points on the Verdasco serve as the set headed into a tiebreak. A crucial double fault from the Scot in the latter stages of the breaker proved decisive as Fernando Verdasco started harbouring dreams of an unlikely semi-final spot when he levelled the match by taking the tiebreak 7-4.

With the match entering its third hour, the quality of tennis fell in the final set, and games went rather comfortably with serve. Murray made one final effort at glory in the tiebreak at the end of the decider, and was able to ease past a hobbling Verdasco 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3).

With part 1 of Thursday's double act completed, albeit not in the desired fashion, it was now a question of wait and watch as a win for Federer would have sent him and Murray through to the semis.

A highly motivated Del Potro came out of the blocks on fire in the opening game to break the Federer serve straight off the bat. He picked up an insurance break in the fifth game looking nothing like the tired and lethargic player we saw in the opening days of the tournament. A tight second set saw just a solitary break point, as early as the first game with Federer escaping certain disaster thanks to a net cord which rescued him. The world no.1 soon found the range on his serve, and both players held comfortably to force a second set tiebreak.

Del Potro had a tremendous chance to send Federer packing from the tournament when he served up a minibreak at 5-4, but the Super Swiss won both points on Del Potro's serve and then a third in a row on his own to level the match at a set all.

The third set ebbed and flowed with Federer earning two break points on the Del Potro serve in an all-important seventh game, but failed to take his chances. The Argentine then replicated the situation on Federer's serve in the following game, and showed that he just might be the latest of the young brigade to have Federer's number by breaking serve for a 5-3 lead. The 'Tower of Tandil' followed it up with an exemplary service game to send Federer crashing to his first defeat at the tournament and his second consecutive loss to the Argentine, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3.

In Group A doubles action, the top seeded pair of Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic ended their year on a high beating the already qualified pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles 6-4, 7-6 (9) in a rather tight doubles encounter that saw just a solitary game going against serve in the entire contest. The Serbian-Canadian pair broke in the 5th game of the opening set and were strong enough to hold on to their advantage and close it out. The second set was Bhupathi-Knowles' for the taking, but they squandered three breakpoints on Nestor's serve in the sixth game, and let five set points slip by in the tiebreak when they led 6-2 and then later 9-8.

The second semi-final berth from Group A was clinched by the Czech-Slovak pairing of Frantisek Cermak and Michal Mertinak, who edged the all Polish pair of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-4, 6-4 in what was virtually a quarterfinal. The scratch veteran pairing are playing in their first ever ATP World Tour Finals and very much deserve to be here after winning five titles already this year.

Tomorrow promises to be a thrilling day with everything still to play for in Group B. Robin Soderling has been the player of the tournament so far, and is already through to the semi-finals, but the big question is who will join him? Novak Djokovic takes on Rafa Nadal in the first singles rubber of the day with the Spaniard surely keen not to end this tournament 0-3, while later in the day talented Russian star Nikolay Davydenko will know exactly what he needs to do to beat Djokovic to that semi-final spot when he faces Soderling.

Thursday's Scores:

Group A Singles
A Murray (GBR) d F Verdasco (ESP) 64 67(4) 76(3)
J Del Potro (ARG) d R Federer (SUI) 62 67(5) 63

Group A Doubles
D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) d M Bhupathi (IND) / M Knowles (BAH) 64 76(9)
F Cermak (CZE) / M Mertinak (SVK) vs M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) 64 64

Friday's Order of Play:
L Dlouhy (CZE) / L Paes (IND) vs. M Mirnyi (BLR) / A Ram (ISR)
R Nadal (ESP) vs. N Djokovic (SRB)
B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) vs. L Kubot (POL) / O Marach (AUT)
N Davydenko (RUS) vs. R Soderling (SWE)

FIle Photograph Copyright: Erika Andersen