AS THE pressure to earn a place among the world's top eight players increases, Andy Murray is playing with the freedom of knowing he earned his place in tennis's 2009 elite several weeks ago. So, while he may be aching and sore from the rigours of playing his first tournament in almost two months, the Scot is in a much-envied position to claim his sixth title of the year at the Valencia Open today.
Fernando Verdasco, Murray's semi-final victim last night, still does not know whether he will qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour finals that begin at London's 02 Arena a fortnight today. But the Spaniard is acutely aware his chances would be far greater if it was he and not the world No 4 facing the unseeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny this afternoon.
Murray will have much more comfortable wins. He grimaced with a painful thigh and occasionally seemed troubled by an abdominal strain but that is only to be expected after a lengthy layoff enforced by a wrist injury. The crucial factor was the self-belief that allowed him to win 6-3 2-6 6-3 against Verdasco, who was mindful that he had beaten his opponent only once in seven previous meetings.
To say Murray had nothing to lose would be as crass as saying he played in a relaxed manner because that will never be the case for the British No 1 when there is a place in a final at stake. But while Verdasco's mind became ever-more blurred by the vision of a chance slipping away, Murray simply went about finishing the job.
Verdasco, who sits in eighth place in the race for a place at the tour finals, and Nikolay Davydenko, a spot higher, must rue their exits from the penultimate competitive week of the regular tennis season. Davydenko knew he would have guaranteed his now customary place among the world's top eight players at the year-ending finale by taking the Valencia title and he seemed well on course as he cruised through the first set of his semi-final against fellow Russian Youzhny.
Advertisement
Davydenko seemed in similar form to when he won the Masters 1000 series title in Shanghai three weeks ago, but things unravelled alarmingly for the man who portrays an uncharismatic image but is habitually a model of consistency.
Youzhny may have been unseeded but arrived on something of a high after winning his hometown title in Moscow.
A night earlier he ended Gilles Simon's hopes of qualifying for the year-ending event for the second year in succession and Youzhny's 3-6 6-4 6-3 win means Davydenko must now go to this week's concluding Masters 1000 series event of the calendar knowing there is still work to do.
Two men with no such concerns are Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, who today contest the Davidoff Swiss Indoors Championships in Basel, comfortable in the knowledge they have long since qualified for London. However, home-town dominance is a matter of some pride for Federer, particularly in a venue that shortly will be named after him, and the world No 1 will today try to win, for the fourth time in succession, the tournament where he used to work as a ball boy.
Playing in his first ATP World Tour tournament since losing the US Open final nearly two months ago, Federer cruised through to the seventh Basel final of his career with a 7-6 6-3 win over fellow Swiss Marco Chiudinelli. The pair have been friends since childhood, although Chiudinelli is ranked 72 places lower and there was little room for compassion as the top seed cruised through in the St Jakobs-halle, which is soon to be renamed the Roger Federer Arena once it has been renovated.
Advertisement
Djokovic had to survive three match points against Radek Stepanek, who was still in with a mathematical chance of registering a place among the eight in London, but anxiety seemed to get the better of the Czech. He hit a double fault on his first match point, was powerless to stop Djokovic slam outright winners on the other two and the Serb, who possesses the richest vein of autumnal form on the tour with victories in all but one of his 14 matches since losing the semi-final at Flushing Meadows to Federer, prevailed 6-7 7-5 6-2.