With the World Tour Finals at London’s O2 Arena just a matter of weeks away, the world’s top players will be focussing their attentions on finishing the 2012 season on a real high Let's have a look aa few of the competitors.
The
Race for the World Tour Finals
Whilst, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafa
Nadal, Andy Murray and David Ferrer have already booked their places in London, the battle is
still on to clinch the remaining three spots.
Tomas Berdych currently lies sixth in the
race for London and gave his chances a massive
boost when he beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to the Stockholm Open title in Sweden last
Sunday. Tsonga himself is in eighth spot and holds a reasonably strong lead
over Serbian, Janko Tipsarevic in ninth. With the Paris Masters swinging into
action next week, Tsonga will know a repeat of last year’s run to the final
will all but assure his place in the showpiece end of season event.
Juan Martin Del Potro’s stroll to the
Vienna title last week means that he is now looking very secure in seventh spot
and should be able to make a return to the O2 having not competed there since
making the final back in 2009.
Whilst it will only be the top eight
players across 2012 who automatically earn places at the O2, there are big
concerns over the fitness of Rafa Nadal and it’s becoming increasingly likely
that the Spaniard who hasn’t played any tennis since being knocked out in the
second round at Wimbledon in June, will decide to call it a day on his 2012
campaign and focus all his efforts on the 2013 season.
Should that be the case, Tipsarevic,
Gasquet and Almagro are all still in contention of making the final line-up.
Winner
– Picks
The World Tour Finals take place in London for the fourth time this November and having been
won by Nikolay Davydenko in the first year, it’s Roger Federer who has stamped
further authority on London
and taken the title in 2010 and 2011.
Federer is the king of the indoor courts
and was victorious both in Paris and London at the back end of
last season. It’s now unlikely that Federer will be able to hold on to the
world no.1 spot through until the end of the season, but it is still a
possibility and the Swiss superstar will be going all out for a third
successive title regardless of world rankings. Federer can currently be backed
at 3/1 to retain this title but if he performs well in Paris next week, those odds could tumble
quickly.
Novak Djokovic is the favourite for victory
with the tennis bookmakers and having never won this event in London he’ll be keen to secure his first O2
victory along with a likely end-of-year world no.1 spot.
Djokovic has won his two events since being
defeated by Andy Murray in the finals of the US Open and his three set victory
over Murray in Shanghai, having saved five match points, has
certainly swung the momentum back in the Serb’s favour. At 9/4 odds, Djokovic isn’t the
best value you’ll find, but he’s the most likely winner of this event for me,
so low value odds could become a high value investment.
Andy Murray would love to round-off what
has been his most successful season on the tour with a victory in London. Having reached
the final of Wimbledon and claimed the Olympic gold medal in London, there will be a huge amount of
expectation on the British no.1 to finally make a mark on this event.
Murray dropped out early here last year and was defeated in an epic
semi-final with Rafa Nadal the year before.
At 5/2, Murray
will certainly have his chances and choosing a winner for your tennis pick from those top three names, is looking tougher than ever before.