ATP World Tour Finals 2013: Nadal opens campaign for year-end trophy

It would normally be seen as an extraordinary occasion at the ATP World Tour Finals when the biggest three names in men’s tennis of the last decade all played on a single day—especially when the fourth man, David Ferrer, also happened to be No3 in the world.

For Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have, between them, finished as year-end No1 every year since 2004—and by the time this tournament is over, they will have sealed a full decade of dominance.

But these same four had, only three days ago, played each other, in precisely the same pairings, in the semis of the last Masters event of the year in Paris.

That was the reason why, exceptionally, the top ranked players from each of the pools took to court on the same day in London, a direct replay and in under similar conditions: same two pairs, same best-of-three format, same indoor environment. The question was, would the results come out the same?

The first, in particular, had much on the line. Rafael Nadal had suffered a very rare defeat to the No2 Spaniard, Ferrer—and in straight sets. But while Nadal holds a 20-5 head-to-head advantage in the rivalry, the shorter—by 4ins—and elder—by four years—had enjoyed better success on hard courts. Not only that, Ferrer had won both previous indoor matches: His first was at the Masters Cup in Shanghai in 2007.

Nadal has never been a fan of, or at his most lethal on, indoor courts, where the speed and low bounce favour a different kind of game. And while he may have qualified nine times for the Finals, playing only five times due to injury concerns, his best finish was one runner-up in 2010, followed by two semis in 2006 and 2007. In 2011 and 2009, he did not get beyond the round-robin stage.

Meanwhile Ferrer, over recent years, has evolved the kind of game that takes advantage of the indoor environment. It is no accident that he is enjoying a career-high ranking, as his serve, his forays to the net and his offensive tactics have earned big wins.

He won his first Masters title on Paris’s indoor courts a year ago, reached his first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros and the semis at the Australian Open. And if more evidence was needed of his form, he also pressed his compatriot hard on Nadal’s favourite clay in Madrid and Rome this year, winning a set at both.

Yet even against this evidence, Ferrer remained acutely modest—verging on pessimistic—about his chances of repeating his Paris success.

“Last week I played very well and maybe Rafael wasn’t playing his best tennis. He’s played very well on hard courts though. He won the US Open. He’s the favourite tomorrow because he’s the No1 and he’s Rafael Nadal.

“For Rafa, it’s one of the best seasons of his career. He won everything and if he wins two more matches he will be year-end No1. What can you say about him? He hits good shots and has a good mentality. He’s the best I’ve seen in my life.”

And it was, of course, hard to ignore the Nadal 2013 comeback: a 71-6 winning run of 10 titles, three of them hard-court Masters and the US Open.

Ferrer had mentioned tiredness ahead of the match, too, and carried heavy taping to his right shoulder in the Paris final, which was discarded after the first set in London.

He did, indeed, look weary and Nadal broke in the opening game, only to be broken back. But it rapidly became what looked like a hopeless cause, for despite Nadal’s high error tariff, Ferrer’s was even higher—19 in the first set—and he was able to win only 24 percent of points on his first serve in the set. Nadal broke again in the fifth game and, for good measure, broke to take the set, 6-3.

Ferrer’s only consolation was that Nadal was also making uncharacteristic errors, and seemed unable to make too many outright winners either. Ferrer took him to deuce on his opening service game, but could not break through and Nadal went on a tear of five more games to serve for the match in little more than an hour.

Ferrer roused himself as the crowd encouraged him with shouts of “Vamos Ferru”, and he remembered how he had won in Paris, by attacking. He made first a smash, then a drop volley winner and broke with a forehand past Nadal. He held serve, too, but that was his last hurrah. Nadal broke for the match, 6-2, and they embraced warmly, as they always do.

But order was restored: Nadal may have made only nine winners, twice the number of errors, but he had a control of this below-par Ferrer from the start—helped not a little but a total of 33 errors by the world No3 by the match’s end.

Ferrer was disappointed in his performance, though refused to make excuses about his lack of rest between the Paris final and today: “Well, I think was not a good day. Rafael play good. He start very solid. And me, well, in all the match I didn’t have a good feeling, no? I was a little bit tired…

“I played a lot of matches these seven weeks, and now the quarter-finals, semi-final and final in Paris Bercy was very close matches, no? I only have one day to rest. Is not excuse, but to beat these type of players, it’s very important to rest and to be in perfect conditions, no?”

The win takes Nadal to within a single win of sealing the year-end No1 but he will need to play better and make fewer errors against both Stan Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych—which he, too, pointed out:

“Is a good start for me, positive one. But, you know, to win against Wawrinka or Berdych, I need to play my best. Surfaces that are favourable for them, or a little bit less positive for me. So if I not play my best, will be very tough to have another victory. I gonna try.”

No-one will doubt that.