Now That Thanksgiving is Over, a Mild Complaint

It has been a bit of an anti-climactic week thus far at the ATP World Tour Finals in London. Through eight round-robin matches, we have seen only one go the three-set distance- an entertaining see-saw clash between Nadal and Roddick which mirrored their encounter in Miami earlier this season. Every other match has ended in straight sets with relatively little drama. An event which boasts a draw consisting entirely of the world's top eight singles players brings with it the promise of many a close, bitterly-contested nail-biter, as we saw at this event last season.

With but the one notable exception, match after marquee match has proven a competitive letdown this week, even when local hero Andy Murray took to the court against Federer, or Djokovic against Nadal. There have also been relatively few surprising outcomes; Federer's bludgeoning of Murray and Roddick's collapse at the hands of Tomas Berdych are the only two that really come to mind.

On that note, the event has been an even bigger letdown from the perspective of a supporter of Mr. Roddick, who has continued to display his recent propensity for losing sets and matches from clearly winning positions. Against Berdych- an opponent who had not been playing at anything close to a top 10 level since Wimbledon- Roddick was clearly the better man through the first 10 games of the opening set, and held two set points at 5-4, each of which saw him returning standard second serves. Each time, Roddick responded with a soft, short slice return, simply hoping for a Berdych error, and in so doing, he not only enabled his foe to save both set points, but also awakened the sleeping giant that was a confident Berdych, with disastrous results.

Nevertheless, all is not lost even for Roddick just yet, as the identity of the second member of Group B (Nadal, Djokovic, Berdych and Roddick) to proceed to the semifinals (wherein Group A winners Federer and Murray await) remains as yet undetermined. The first criterion for semifinal berth is, of course, a player's round-robin win-loss record, but in the event that Nadal, who is 2-0 thus far in the event, should defeat Berdych and Roddick beat Djokovic today, then all three men will be 1-2, and the selection process will have to make recourse to total sets or even games in order to choose from the three. As I write this, Nadal is on the brink of a straight-sets victory. Going into the final round-robin match-up of this event, Roddick holds an impressive 5-2 head-to-head record against Djokovic and has won their last four meetings, though it does seem that Djokovic's form has improved of late, and that Roddick is low on confidence, as evidenced by his repeated losses from ahead, including one to Berdych, against whom he had previously held a dominant 6-2 record. I will be in his corner, and expect an entertaining match to punctuate the round-robin swing.

Federer, Soderling and Semifinals in France

Before delving into more pressing matters, I would like to point out an odd little observation I've made:

Last week in Paris, the two semifinals (Soderling vs. Llodra and Federer vs. Monfils) were veritably remarkable, not only for their tremendous drama and entertainment value, but for their congruency- each match ended most unusually, with one man saving several match points while serving at 5-6, then roaring back to claim victory in a decisive tiebreak. Seeing this most unusual phenomenon take place and reflecting on it in its aftermath, I was reminded of an eerily similar occurrence which transpired at last year's French Open, when Federer and Soderling, competing on the same national soil, also participated in back-to-back epic semifinals which were distinguished by their uncanny similarity to one another; first Federer squeaked past Juan Martin Del Potro 6-4 in their fifth set, then Soderling rallied to overcome Fernando Gonzalez by precisely the same finishing score- 6-4 in the fifth- in a match with the same net duration time, to the minute.

This compels me to wonder: do Roger and Robin have some kind of bizarre pact to faithfully imitate one another's semifinal showings on French soil, are they psychically linked, or- to close out this little post with a nauseatingly cheesy pun- is it just something in the cheese?

On Goes the Ballad of Federer and Roddick

It will be an eminently familiar sight tomorrow in Basel when Roger Federer and Andy Roddick take to opposite sides of the tennis court to duel for a spot in the tournament final. Their "rivalry" has been on a bit of a hiatus, what with their not having met in a competitive match since last year's legendary Wimbledon epic, but there will surely be nothing foreign to either man about what awaits him across the net. The stakes will not be nearly so high as those underlying many of their previous clashes, and yet they are still hefty enough to bring out the competitive fire in most any player- for Federer, a chance to reclaim the title he lost last year on his beloved home turf, and for Roddick, the possibility of an eighth consecutive qualification for the year-end championships.

In searching for an apt analogy to the dynamics of the Federer-Roddick series in other media, I fear one might all too often find his or her thoughts straying towards the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" films. In 21 professional encounters between these two, Roddick has emerged victorious but twice, and those only narrowly, while Federer has blown through over half of their meetings in straight sets. However, it may be pointed out that things have been somewhat different in the last few additions to this ledger; Roddick has taken at least a set off Federer in four of their last five meetings, including a win (2008 Miami) and, most recently, a near-stunner in a Grand Slam final (2009 Wimbledon).

I have not seen much of Federer's play thus far in Basel, though his results indicate that he is by no means at his worst. His strokes look clean and confident in the portions of his match with Radek Stepanek which I have viewed. However, he has been thoroughly erratic in recent months, and clean rallying against a lower-tier opponent has not always translated into the same in his big matches.

Roddick's form this week been surprisingly strong, given the illness-and-injury problems which have plagued him over the last several months. He has defeated two dangerous opponents in Sam Querrey and David Nalbandian, has not dropped a set and has only lost serve once en route to the semifinals, and has projected an air of confidence and assertiveness on the court that was missing all through this summer.

I believe that, if he brings the same level of play to the court against Federer as he did today in defeating Nalbandian, Roddick should give Federer trouble and will have a "live" shot at pulling the upset. To me, it will feel like justice if he does just that.