The Knight wrote:

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Thanks for the help, if it was just me i would probably look to offload the ticket and get one for Fed-Murray. But as i'm with friends i'm not sure it's worth the hassle, probably just going to have to enjoy the Soderling match really

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Real pity if you miss the Muzza - Fed match.  But if you and your friends do stick with the Soderling - Ferrer match you are right, forget the other match and just concentrate on enjoying the match you've got and enjoying the whole night.

I think Nadal vs Roddick will be tight.  Wouldn't be surprised if Roddick wins.

indiana wrote:

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Neil Harman of The Times has tweeted :

"Big decisions at ATP Tour, the year shortened by 2 weeks from 2012, no time between Paris and WTF. Contentious but something done at last"

Agree something probably needed done.

Disagree no time between Paris Masters and WTF.  That's pretty crazy!

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OEM elaborates on the theme in a full-blown column in today's Times:

1)  he states that the present thinking is that the event [the WTF] will run  from Monday to Monday;
2)  after suggesting that the decision will do "enormous harm" to both the Paris Masters & the WTF, he asks, tellingly, "...which of the elite players who have qualified for London are going to want to play in a tournament the week immediately preceding it and almost certainly - if this year's experience is anything to go by - switch from a fast indoor court on to a docile one?";
3) he argues [convincingly, IMHO], after quoting Helfant on the ATP's promotion of the WTF,  that the hype generated when the eight players involved in this year's event met David Cameron last week was "akin to a week's free advertising and any organisation that says it can do without that kind of publicity is a touch deluded." ( );
4) he concedes that for Helfant "to have engineered such a concert [between the players & the tournaments in which they compete] within the game does him credit", but then delivers the killer punch:  "He fought shy, however, of commenting on the likelihood that players will use the additional time offered to play in lucrative exhibition matches."!

 

seagull wrote:

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A final on a Monday - it get's worse!

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 Yep, I did wonder about that possibilty in my tirade 

Nadal not a serious contender yet, just doesn't seem to enjoy indoor conditions, but played better as the match wore on. Tough on Roddick who gave a good account and possibly should have caused the upset which Indy to his credit predicted.

This has the disitinct whiff of yet another compromise that hasn't been properly thought through (think ranking points for DC, the transitional ranking arrangements for last year, etc), though I do applaud Adam Helfant for finding a way to break the deadlock re the length of the season.

Getting back to Tuesday's big match (oh how I wish I had time to go today!), I'm sure you all know that Muzza leads the H2H 8-5 but once you've factored in Fed's two straight sets wins in slams, their H2H sets record is as close as it possibly could be - 17-17!

They are 1-1 at the TMC/WTF, with both matches being won by the player who lost the 1st set ...

philwrig wrote:

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Nadal not a serious contender yet, just doesn't seem to enjoy indoor conditions, but played better as the match wore on. Tough on Roddick who gave a good account and possibly should have caused the upset which Indy to his credit predicted.

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Didn't see the match and maybe there was some rust initially from Rafa.  But it was more as I highlighted before Rafa has really a relatively poor indoor record, actually not nearly as good statistically as Roddick's, and I thought Roddick would be fairly up for it.  Just did look a quite probable close one to me, and sometimes I'm right 

Credit to Rafa on coming back from a set and a break down.