- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The lead-up to the elite year-end event in London was initially all about whether world No. 1 Rafael Nadal would participate. Ultimately, the organisers heaved a huge sigh of relief when Rafa confirmed he would compete, but there was a twist in the tale.
Roger Federer
In his 15th appearance at the event, Federer had a tough group, with Jack Sock, Alexander ‘Sascha’ Zverev and Marin Cilic as opponents.
Sock was a tournament debutant after dramatically winning the Paris Rolex masters. Fed had won all their three matches earlier in straight sets and the trend continued with Fed winning 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).
It was Federer’s 50th win this season – he has won 50 or more matches in a year 14 times.
Roger’s next match was with Sascha. They had split their four matches earlier, but Federer won 7-6, 5-7, 6-1 to book his place in the semi-finals. It was an incredible 14th semi-finals entry in his 15 appearances at this event.
Federer’s only loss to Cilic in eight matches was at the US Open, where Cilic showed an incredible display of power. As in the Zverev-Federer match, the first two sets were tight before, once again, Fed had a strong third set to win 6-7, 6-4, 6-1.
For Cilic it was a tournament to forget. It was also his eighth loss in nine matches at the year-end event.
Federer entered the semi-finals with a perfect three-nil record for the tenth time from his 14 entries.
Rafael Nadal
Amazingly, Rafa has not won this tournament – even once. His best chance was probably in 2010, when he defeated Murray in the match of the tournament but lost to Federer in the Final.
In 2017, with two Majors won and having already pocketed the coveted year-end ranking, tennis fans were looking forward to a Federer-Nadal final and a Rafa win.
Nadal’s first match was with David Goffin. The Spaniard had won both their earlier matches in straight sets but here, to the surprise of all, Goffin prevailed in three sets 7-6, 6-7, 6-4.
It was clear that Rafa was struggling with fitness issues. Eventually, he withdrew from the tournament after the match and first alternate Pablo Carreno Busta stepped in.
Should Rafa have not entered at all? In retrospective, probably yes. It would have made better sense to concentrate on next season.
Grigor Dimitrov
For Dimitrov, it was a tournament debut and he defeated Dominic Thiem 6-3, 5-7, 7-5. Thiem was good in patches only and Dimitrov was overall more consistent.
It could, however, be noted that Dimitrov seems to have an issue serving out matches.
[latest_videos_strip]
Dimitrov vs Goffin was looked forward to as potentially a close encounter, but Dimitrov came up with a perfect exhibition of tennis to win easily 6-1, 6-4 and book a place in the semi-finals as well.
Dimitrov won his third match easily as well to emulate Federer by entering the semi-finals with a three-nil record.
Jack Sock
After his loss to Fed, Sock had matches against Cilic and Sascha.
Interestingly, Sock had won both his prior matches with Cilic, and he made it three in a row by winning 5-7, 6-2, 7-6. Winning after being a set down and after being a break down in the third set showed the American’s fighting ability.
It was the first win by an American in ten years since Roddick had won in 2007.
Sock and Sascha had met twice, both times on hard courts with one win each. However, Sock was on a roll while Sascha was quite inconsistent.
This inconsistency showed in the tennis too, as Sock won in three sets 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 with two steady sets in the first and third while Sascha had a spectacular second set but overall was incredibly inconsistent.
The American had entered the semi-finals in his debut year.
David Goffin
After a shock win over Rafa and a crushing defeat from Dimitrov, Goffin came up with a scintillating performance over Thiem to complete the semi-final line up.
Semi-Finals
The first semi-final was between Goffin and Federer and all six matches of their career so far had been won by Fed.
It seemed like a seventh win was in the offing as Federer took the first set pretty confidently at 6-2. However, Goffin came back strongly to win the second and third set and win the match 2-6, 6-3 6-4.
Goffin was only the sixth player to defeat Nadal and Federer in the same tournament. Novak has done it three times, Nalbandian and Davydenko have done it twice while Murray, Del Potro and now Goffin have done it once.
It was sweet of Federer to say Goffin always used to defeat him very easily in practice and it was only expected that in match play too he would win someday. Overall, it was a year Federer would be very proud of.
The second semi-final between Sock and Dimitrov was expected to be an intriguing contest and, interestingly, Sock has a 3-1 head-to-head lead.
The American took the first set, however, Dimitrov then roared back to win the next two to enter the final with a 4-6, 6-0, 6-3
Final
As expected, there were nerves at the beginning of the match as both were first-time finalists. However, soon they got into the groove and we saw fierce hitting by both.
Ultimately, Dimitrov prevailed 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in what was the longest tennis final at the year-end event since John Mcenroe won the 1978 final over Arthur Ashe.
An eerie coincidence, in 1978, Ashe had lost his Round Robin match 1-6, 3-6 but then came back strongly in the final, only to lose in three straight sets. Ditto with Goffin and Dimitrov this year as well.
So the year ended strongly for Dimitrov, who reached his career high of world No. 3. He had started the year well too by reaching the Australian Open semi-finals, losing to Nadal in one of the best matches of the year.
However, the year undoubtedly belonged to Nadal and Federer. Will it be the same in 2018?
Will Novak and Murray stage a comeback? Will a youngster have a breakthrough year?
2017 was a great tennis year, I’m looking forward to a great 2018 as well.
Whether it’s aces or races, try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp for great odds and a great punting experience. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.