Watch Out For Djokovic As ATP Tour Finals Begin

By Galen E. Bull

Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro will be the first singles match as the Barclay’s ATP World Tour Finals begins Sunday in London. The groupings for the world’s top eight players are:

GROUP A

Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Juan Martin del Potro, Fernando Verdasco

GROUP B

Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Nikolay Davydenko, Robin Soderling

The top two players in each group advance to the semi-finals, with the final set for November 29. Absent from the field of eight is Andy Roddick, who withdrew from the event due to an injured knee that caused him to retire against Stanislas Wawrinka earlier this month in Shanghai. Sweden’s Robin Soderling benefitted from the Roddick withdrawal and is now in the field.

I expect Federer and Murray to emerge from Group A. They are too good and will play like they belong there. For del Potro, the shine has worn off from his U.S. Open title. Since New York, he lost in the first round at Tokyo to a player ranked 189th. He followed that by retiring in his matches in the second round of Shanghai and in the quarters in Paris, respectively. Verdasco has a tough game, but he’s 1-7 versus Murray and 0-3 versus Federer.

Djokovic and Nadal should get through Group B. Djokovic can beat anyone right now, and while Nadal hasn’t been the dominant Nadal of old, I still think he can best Soderling and Davydenko when it really matters. And this is the seventh event since the U.S. Open for Soderling and Davydenko. Weariness and not-so-fresh legs may be a factor for both.

Djokovic is my pick to win the Tour Finals for the second straight year. He beat Federer earlier this month to win the Davidoff Swiss Indoor title in front of Federer’s crowd. The following week he beat Nadal in the semi-finals of the Paribas Masters in the most dominant performance I’ve seen by a player not named Nadal or Federer. The Serb went on to win the title by beating Gael Monfils and 14,000 Parisians cheering their “Le Monf” in the final.

Djokovic is peaking at the right time. It will be interesting to see if he’ll carry it into Australia.