World Tour Finals Preview

The ATP World Tour Finals begins in London on Sunday.  Here's some history on the 10 qualifiers:

Novak Djokovic (SRB):  5th appearance ('07-'10), 8-7 record, best result: '08 champion
Rafael Nadal (ESP):  5th appearance ('06,'07,'09,'10), 8-8 record, best result: '10 final
Andy Murray (GBR):  4th appearance ('08-'10), 7-4 record, best result: '08,'10 semis
Roger Federer (SUI):  10th appearance ('02-'10), 34-7 record, best result: '03,'04,'06,'07,'10 champion
David Ferrer (ESP):  3rd appearance ('07,'10), 4-4 record, best result: '07 final
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA):  2nd appearance ('08), 1-2 record, best result: '08 round robin
Tomas Berdych (CZE):  2nd appearance ('10), 1-2 record, best result: '10 round robin
Mardy Fish (USA):  1st appearance

Group A:  Djokovic, Murray, Ferrer, Berdych
Group B:  Nadal, Federer, Tsonga, Fish

Because of the injuries (Djokovic, Murray) and absence on the tour recently (Nadal) of 3 of the big 4, I am not very sure what to expect of this tournament.  Federer comes in off a Paris title and is the defending champion, so I think he is a slight favorite.  But even the big 4 has been dominate this year, getting to 14 of the 16 slam semifinals and winning all 9 Masters, the players ranked 5 through 8 are capable of upsetting them and perhaps altering the outcome.  While I don't think Tsonga, Berdych, or Fish can win the tournament, given the nature of round robin play, they could cripple one of the big 4's chances at winning it.  So while the big 4 is the safe bet to make the semis, I don't think they all will, and any of them could miss and any of the "others" could land in the semis.  So I'm not going to make a prediction here, but will sit back and enjoy the show.

----------------------------------------

I have updated the WTA top 10 by the birth year page with the year end rankings and included a small amount of analysis.  For further info on movements within the top 100, I recommend Todd Spiker's WTA Backspin (see link at right).