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2014 ATP World Tour Finals: Preview and draw (Part I)

Roar Guru
7th November, 2014
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The true champions of men's tennis prove it over five sets. (AFP PHOTO / CARL COURT)
Roar Guru
7th November, 2014
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Just one major tournament remains on the 2014 tennis calendar and it will see the eight best-performed men throughout the year converge on London for the prestigious ATP World Tour Finals.

For the sixth straight year, this tournament will be held at the O2 Arena, where Novak Djokovic is the two-time defending champion, but his world number one ranking is under threat from Roger Federer.

World number three Rafael Nadal is the only notable absentee from this year’s event. The Spaniard, who won the French Open for a ninth time this year, was forced to withdraw from the event due to injury but has since successfully undergone surgery to remove his appendix.

The draw for the tournament has been released and the eight men have been split into two groups – A and B. Group A will be previewed in detail here, while Group B will be previewed in Part II.

Group A
Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych, Marin Cilic

Novak Djokovic (1)
Eighth appearance
Best result: Won (2008, 2012, 2013)
Titles won in 2014: Indian Wells, Miami, Rome, Wimbledon, Beijing, Paris

Grand Slam results this year
Australian Open: Quarter-finals
French Open: Runner-up
Wimbledon: Champion
US Open: Semi-finals

Head-to-head
15-3 versus Wawrinka
16-2 versus Berdych
10-0 versus Cilic
41-5 combined total

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Stan Wawrinka (3)
Second appearance
Best result: Round robin (2013)
Titles won in 2014: Chennai, Australian Open, Monte Carlo

Grand Slam results this year
Australian Open: Champion
French Open: First round
Wimbledon: Quarter-finals
US Open: Quarter-finals

Head-to-head
3-15 versus Djokovic
9-5 versus Berdych
7-2 versus Cilic
19-22 combined total

Tomas Berdych (6)
Fifth appearance
Best result: Semi-finals (2011)
Titles won in 2014: Rotterdam, Stockholm

Grand Slam results this year
Australian Open: Semi-finals
French Open: Quarter-finals
Wimbledon: Third round
US Open: Quarter-finals

Head-to-head
2-16 versus Djokovic
5-9 versus Wawrinka
5-4 versus Cilic
12-29 combined total

Marin Cilic (8)
First appearance
Best result: N/A
Titles won in 2014: Zagreb, Delray Beach, US Open, Kremlin Cup

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Grand Slam results this year
Australian Open: Second round
French Open: Third round
Wimbledon: Quarter-finals
US Open: Champion

Head-to-head
0-10 versus Djokovic
2-7 versus Wawrinka
4-5 versus Berdych
6-22 combined total

Preview
World number one and two-time defending champion Novak Djokovic will be heavily favoured to finish on top of Group A, given his dominant head-to-head records against everyone else in his group.

The only sticking point might be the clash with Stan Wawrinka, who famously knocked him out of this year’s Australian Open in a five-set thriller which finished 9-7 in the final set in their only meeting this year.

The Serb also possesses double-figure wins against Tomas Berdych, who he defeated to win in Beijing last month, and Marin Cilic, against whom he has never lost, and defeated at the French Open and Wimbledon this year.

Having started the year ranked second behind Rafael Nadal, Djokovic lost his Australian Open title defence to Wawrinka before capturing his first titles for the year at Indian Wells and Miami in March.

He then won his third Rome title before falling short in his bid to complete his Grand Slam set, Nadal once again proving to be an impediment to Djokovic’s bid to win the French Open for the first time.

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At Wimbledon a month later, he defeated Roger Federer in a classic five-set final to win not only his second Wimbledon title and seventh Grand Slam title overall, but also to return to the top of the rankings for the first time in nine months.

Mediocre results followed at the Rogers Cup and Cincinnati, as he failed to reach the quarter-finals at either tournament, losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tommy Robredo respectively. That was then followed by a shock semi-final loss to Kei Nishikori in New York, where he was odds-on to reach the final.

Following the US Open, he then successfully retained titles in Beijing and Paris on either side of losing to Federer in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters.

Since upsetting Djokovic en route to winning the Australian Open, Stan Wawrinka has endured a huge hangover; other than winning Monte Carlo for his first Masters title, the Swiss number two suffered from poor results at other major tournaments.

At the French Open, where he was a quarter-finalist in 2013, he crashed out in the first round, while at Wimbledon and the US Open, he fell to Federer and Nishikori in the quarter-finals respectively.

Wawrinka desperately needs to lift his form for the season-finale, and not only that, his best form will also be needed as Switzerland seek their first Davis Cup trophy against France later this month.

Tomas Berdych has enjoyed another consistent season in 2014, reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open as well as reaching the quarter-finals at Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows on either side of a third-round exit at Wimbledon.

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He was able to capture two titles this year, after failing to land any in 2013. He defeated Marin Cilic, to whom he would lose at Wimbledon and New York later in the year, to win in Rotterdam, while in Stockholm he dethroned Grigor Dimitrov as defending champion to win his milestone 10th career title.

Last but not least Cilic, who has come back from a drugs suspension to become the first man from his country since Goran Ivanisevic won Wimbledon in 2001 to win a major trophy – the US Open in September.

This breakthrough counts as one of four titles the Croat won this year, after also winning in Zagreb, Delray Beach and Moscow. As far as his other Grand Slam results are concerned, he suffered early exits at the Australian and French Opens, but he was able to reach the final eight at Wimbledon for the first time.

That’s the Group A previewed. Group B will be previewed in Part II.

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