By
Ali Ahmed
KARACHI,
Pakistan (TheSportsNEXT) November 4, 2012: The eight highest-ranked men’s
singles players will converge in London from Monday in the ATP World Tour
Finals where six times champion Roger Federer will defend his title, yet again.
Let’s take a
look at the history of the tournament as well as the playing conditions and points
system.
History, Rules and Points System
This event
began back in 1970 at Tokyo and was originally known as the Masters Grand Prix. Stan Smith of USA became the first Singles
Champion and Arthur Asher along with Stan smith became first doubles champion.
ATP world Tour Finals is the only ATP event
played in a round-robin format where eight
players contest for the laurels in two different groups. However, under the
rules, the player who is ranked number eight in the ATP Champion's Race world
rankings does not have a guaranteed spot. If a player who wins one of the
year's Grand Slam events finishes the year ranked outside the top eight but
still within the top 20, he would have been included in the event instead of
the eighth-ranked player. If two players outside the top eight won Grand Slam
events, the higher placed player in the world rankings would take the final
spot in the Tennis Masters Cup.
Player who
wins Round Robin Match is awarded 200 points while winner of Semi Final and
Final gets 400 points and 500 points, respectively. It means Undefeated
Champion gets 1500 ATP Rankings Points.
Most ATP World Tour Finals Titles
Last year
Swiss Player Roger Federer won this title for a record sixth time as he broke
Pete Sampras’s record of winning most number of ATP World Tour Finals titles.
Roger Federer 6
Pete Sampras 5
Ivan Lendl 5
In 2012,
Tennis fans will miss the current world number four Rafael Nadal who has been
out of circuit after Wimbledon shock defeat due to injury and made way for
Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia. Rafael Nadal who has a phenomenal ATP career but is
yet to clinch the ATP World Tour Finals title and once again he has been made to
wait for another year.
The following top eight players have been divided
into two pools of four players.
GROUP A
Novak
Djokovic (Serbia)
Andy
Murray (Great Britain)
Tomas
Berdych (Czech Republic)
Jo-Wilfried
Tsonga (France)
GROUP B
Roger
Federer (Switzerland)
David
Ferrer (Spain)
Juan
Martin del Potro (Argentine)
Janko
Tipsarevic (Serbia)
Roger Federer qualified for the 11th
year in succession and will start his voyage for seventh title against Serbian
Janko Tipsarevic on Tuesday. While Andy Murray seeking to win first ATP World
Tour Finals in front of home crowd will meet Tomas Berdych on Monday.
Players Records
Group A
Novak Djokovic will come at number one position
on Monday and will finish with top ranking for the second successive year.
Novak Djokovic vs Tomas Berdych
Novak Djokovic has very good record against Tomas
Berdych of 10-1 and 2-0 in ATP World Tour Finals.
Novak Djokovic vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
At the same time Novak Djokovic has slim
advantage over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga with head-to-head record of 8-5 records in
his favor but interestingly he lost only match of ATP World Tour Finals against
him in 2008.
Novak Djokovic vs Andy Murray
While record against Andy Murray is also close,
so many interesting matches have been witnessed between these two players over
the years. Novak has 9-7 record against Murray but they never met in ATP World
Tour Finals and this year both players came as big rivals and have a 3-3 record.
Andy Murray vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
World number three Andy Murray has strong record
against French Player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of 6-2 and has won the last five
matches against him and will meet him first time in the ATP World Tour Finals.
Andy Murray vs Tomas Berdych
Andy Murray has 3-4 record against Tomas Berdych
and is looking forward to meet the Czech player for the first time in the ATP World
Tour Finals.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs Tomas Berdych
Tomas Berdych has 4-1 record against French
player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Both players met only once in the ATP Finals last
year where the Frenchman had the last laugh.Both players can remove top players
with their strong performance.
So Novak Djokovic has advantage over all the three
competitors in his group but at the same time Tomas Berdych can’t be ignored as
he has good record over Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and is seeking to
win his first ATP World Tour Finals.
ATP World Tour Finals Record of Group A players are:
Novak
Djokovic 9-9
Andy Murray 7-5
Tomas
Berdych 3-4
Jo-Wilfried
Tsonga 4-4
Group
B
Interestingly
Roger Federer lost just one match whenever he became champion in this Event. In
2007 he lost to Fernando Gonzalez in round-robin stage.
Roger Federer vs David Ferrer
Roger Federer boasts an exceptional record
against David Ferrer and has won all the 13 matches between them and won two
matches in the ATP World Tour Finals.
Roger Federer vs Juan Martin del Potro
Swiss player has a 13-3 record against Juan Martin
del Potro but lost his only match against him at the ATP World Tour Finals in
2009.
Roger Federer vs Janko
Tipsarevic
Roger Fedeer has a remarkable 5-0 record against Janko Tipsarevic
and will meet him first time in the ATP World Tour Finals.
David Ferrer vs Juan
Martin del Potro
David Ferrer has 5-2 record against Juan Martin del Potro but
they have never met each other in the ATP World Tour Finals.
David Ferrer vs Janko
Tipsarevic
Spanish player has 3-1 record against Janko Tipsarevic and is
looking to meet him first time in the ATP World Tour Finals.
Juan Martin del Potro vs Janko
Tipsarevic
Juan Martin del Potro has 3-0 record against Janko Tipsarevic
and will meet him for the first time in the ATP World Tour Finals.
ATP World Tour Finals Record of Group B players are:
Roger
Federer 39-7
David
Ferrer 6-6
Juan Martin
del Potro 4-4
Janko
Tipsarevic 1-1
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