According to the draw, the eight players in the year-end finals are divided into two groups. They will first conduct a round-robin within the group. Then, based on the performance ranking, the top two players in the group will advance to the semi-finals.
Group A, Djokovic, Wawrinka, Berdych, Ferrer.
Group B, Federer, Murray, Kei Nishikori, Raonic.
On the first match day, Group B took the lead.
As the opening match of this year's O2 Arena, the "Federer VS Raonic" game easily aroused the popularity. After all, just three days ago, the two players had just met once, and Raonic played the best game of his career.
This masterpiece is worth looking forward to as the young people are full of enthusiasm.
However, the ideal is plump and the reality is skinny.
"6:1", "7:6(0)".
Federer swept Raonic in straight sets to complete his revenge.
Whether it was the huge defeat in the first set or the shaved head in the tie-break of the second set, Raonic failed to show his competitive level and was completely different from three days ago.
Of course, everyone knows that any game against the Big Four is not easy, and it is even more difficult to win consecutively. This is why Gao Wen’s victory over Djokovic in Paris last week received so much attention;
But Raonic's failure to fight back was still disappointing.
So, what about the second game?
"Murray VS Kei Nishikori", this should be closer and more intense, right?
pity.
"6:4", "6:4".
Kei Nishikori was on full fire, not only defeating Murray for the first time in his career, but also suppressing Murray throughout the game, rushing to victory so fast that the cheers of the home audience were muted.
Very depressed.
Fans and spectators came in joy and returned disappointed. Such a one-sided game was definitely not what they expected to see, but they still held on to a glimmer of hope:
Maybe, this is just the first match day, things should improve tomorrow, and the matchup in Group A is also quite interesting.
but……
One game, "6:1", "6:1".
One game, "6:1", "6:1".
On the second match day, the two games ended up with exactly the same score, with Wawrinka sweeping Berdych and Djokovic sweeping Ferrer.
Moreover, both games lasted less than an hour and were decided so quickly that every audience at the scene was stunned:
That's it?
Is your wife too boring?
The most frightening thing is that the disaster is still not over. "Sweep", "defeat", and "complete victory" are like viruses, quietly spreading in the O2 Arena.
On the third match day, Murray swept Raonic and Federer swept Kei Nishikori.
On the fourth match day, Berdych swept Ferrer and Djokovic swept Wawrinka.
All are "2:0"!
Moreover, among the four duels and eight sets, only the score in the second set between Murray and Raonic was relatively close, "7:5". The other seven sets were all disparate scores, and Djokovic even scored in the third set.
In the second set, Wawrinka was given a duck egg directly, and the entire game lasted about 70 minutes.
The most anticipated but also the most surprising game is the duel between Djokovic and Wawrinka. This is the first match between the two this season after Wawrinka upset Djokovic at the Australian Open. The result
The game turned out to be so one-sided, Wawrinka had almost no power to fight back, which was completely unexpected.
It is true that at the end of the season, the players are exhausted, and their physical strength and energy have reached their limits. In addition, they have exhausted their energy in the final sprint for the year-end finals. Just look at the upsets of the two Masters tournaments in Magic City and Paris.
You know, these are understandable objective factors.
However, from the process to the score, from the confrontation to the stalemate, the entire game was not intense or stalemate at all, and the quality could be said to be abysmal.
This...this is really...
It’s hard to describe in one word.
Since the start of the year-end finals, there has been four match days, but there has been no group match worthy of discussion. Isn't this too shabby and pitiful?
Whether it is Raonic, a newbie in the finals, or regulars in the finals like Berdych and Ferrer, or Wawrinka, the new Grand Slam champion, the overall performance is disappointing. In one sentence
To sum up the battle situation so far, that is——
Djokovic and Federer have won two consecutive games, and the suspense of the battle for world No. 1 at the end of the year still continues.
If one must choose a taller one among the short ones, Kei Nishikori's victory over Murray is still worth mentioning; but the problem is that Kei Nishikori only resisted Federer for 69 minutes and scored five points in the whole game.
The game looked like he suddenly couldn't play, and it was still bad.
Before the game, I was so looking forward to it; now, I am so disappointed.
Before the game, it was so noisy; now, it is so speechless.
Compared with the enthusiasm and craziness of the fans and audience, the quality of the game was really not up to par. Even the reporters were speechless and didn't know what to say.
What else can be said?
Obviously, the players don't want this to be the case. They also want to go on the field and try their best to win, but they are indeed running out of gas.
Perhaps, this situation in the year-end finals also confirms one thing: if you want to completely overthrow the structure of professional tennis, there is still something missing.
However, are there no highlights in the year-end finals?
no.
After the two rounds of Group A and Group B, no one from either group has qualified early, and both have formed a ring pattern, which further proves the chaos of this season.
Djokovic in Group A and Federer in Group B have both won two consecutive games, so they have an advantage in qualifying. They only need to win one set in the last game to qualify successfully; and even if
If they lose in two sets, they won't necessarily be eliminated. They have to keep the score low.
Outside of them, the qualifying situation of the two groups is not clear. In fact, the situation of Group A and Group B is exactly the same.
In Group A, Djokovic won two, Wawrinka and Berdych won one, and Ferrer lost two.
In Group B, Federer won twice, Kei Nishikori and Murray won once, and Raonic lost twice.
Including Ferrer and Raonic, all players have the possibility of qualifying; at the same time, all players still have the possibility of being eliminated.
One, Federer and Djokovic, who had won two games, were eliminated.
Taking Group B as an example, Federer loses to Murray in two sets and Kei Nishikori defeats Raonic in two sets. Then the three players Federer, Murray and Kei Nishikori will qualify in a series of situations:
Therefore, a small score calculation is needed to determine the right to qualify, and Federer may also be eliminated.
The same goes for Djokovic.
One, Ferrer and Raonic, who lost two games, advance to the semifinals.
Taking Group B as an example, Federer defeated Murray in two sets and Raonic defeated Kei Nishikori in two sets. Then Federer would win three and qualify first in the group.
The other three players all have one win, so Murray, Raonic and Kei Nishikori need to calculate the points to determine the second qualifying spot.
The same goes for Ferrer.
Two consecutive wins does not mean qualifying; two consecutive losses does not mean elimination.