The subplots that will litter the court of the O2 arena when the best eight players in men’s tennis parade their wares in southeast London from next Sunday are worthy of the admission itself.
For starters, Rafael Nadal can still finish the year as world No 1 and Andy Murray is not safe as the No 4, with Juan Martín del Potro, the US Open champion from Argentina, in close proximity.
There is plenty more at stake than oodles of cash and something nice for the mantelpiece.
When Nadal defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 7-5 in the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Masters here, he not only ended the 24-year-old Frenchman’s hope of retaining the title plundered with swashbuckling certainty a year ago, but he also denied him a place in the field for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Fernando Verdasco, Nadal’s compatriot and fellow left-hander, thus qualifies for the first time.
Indeed, Verdasco had reason to be grateful that not only Nadal but Novak Djokovic — who could yet finish the year as No 2, a position held by Murray three months ago — has sacrificed all thought of husbanding his energy. Djokovic won the Basle tournament last week and his 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 success over Robin S?derling yesterday was enough for the Swede to know that his only chance of competing in London is as a reserve.
Advertisement
There have been those eager to brand Djokovic a bit of a quitter and when he retired in the fourth set of the Australian Open quarter-final against Andy Roddick in January, in a state of near-collapse from heat exhaustion, the bandwagon filled again.
“I always try to give my best, really, every single match,” he said. “I don’t make differences between tournaments. It’s not on me to judge if it’s a good thing or bad thing, this is just the way I am, my mentality, my philosophy. I will always try to get the last piece of energy in my body to win the match.”
There is not that much resource left, though, the Serbian freely admitted, which must be a concern for the London organisers. The upside of staging such an event is the absolute quality of the people involved, the downside is the time of year and how much of their best these paragons have left to give.
When Roger Federer lost in his first match here and Murray in his second, their reactions were not as if the same had happened in the first Masters 1000 event of the year, rather than the last. The tank is heading towards “E” and it is important to conserve what gas is left.
On the other hand, expect Nadal and Djokovic to go hammer and tongs at each other at the Palais Omnisports today, just as they did in the semi-final of the Madrid Masters in May when they ran each other to a standstill and seriously damaged their French Open prospects. How Federer, Murray and Co would be happy to see a repeat of that.
Advertisement
The intrigue was maintained when Del Potro completed four games against Radek Stepanek before succumbing to a stomach muscle pull, which is not expected to affect his chances of making the tour finals.
Line-up for the O2 arena: R Federer (Switz), R Nadal (Sp), N Djokovic (Serbia), A Murray (GB), J M del Potro (Arg), A Roddick (US), N Davydenko (Russ), F Verdasco (Sp).