A week after Juan Martin del Potro defeated Federer on Roger’s home court at the Swiss Indoors in Basel 6-4, 6-7(5), 7-6(3)…and a week after David Ferrer won his third Valencia Open over Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-1, 3-6, 6-4…the Paris Indoors have been riddled with upsets!
First, Roger Federer withdrew from the tournament shortly after losing to del Potro in Basel…opting instead to rest-up for the ATP Finals, which start Monday in London.
Or perhaps THIS is the reason Roger needed a week off:
On Halloween, Novak Djokovic – who will finish the year as world #1 – was knocked out of the tournament by Sam Querry, 6-0, 6-7, 4-6. An amazing comeback for Sam; though Novak Djokovic has been distracted this week, dealing with worries about his father who is suffering from an accute respiratory condition; then Andy Murray was knocked out the following day by Polish qualifier Jerzy Janowicz 7-5, 6-7, 2-6! So, for the first time in a long while, someone outside the top-4 on the ATP World Tour will win a Master’s title. We’ll find out who wins on Sunday.
By the way, the stage is set for next week’s ATP World Tour Finals. With Rafael Nadal still sidelined, Janko Tipsarevic makes the field which also includes: Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Juan Martin del Potro, Tomas Berdych, David Ferrer, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
While the O2 Arena in Prague hosts the Fed Cup Final this weekend, it’ll also host the Davis Cup Final starting two weeks from today – featuring Tomas Berdych and Team Czech Republic vs. David Ferrer and Team Spain. Spain is the defending champion.
By now, I hope you’ve heard that Team USA will host Brazil in a 2013 First Round World Group Davis Cup Tie in Jacksonville, Florida. We hope to see you there Super Bowl Weekend for three days of tennis – this is the first home tie for the US since July of 2011, where the US lost to Spain on the courts in Austin, Texas during the World Group Quarterfinals.
