London: The huge hoardings around the O2 Arena here promoting the season-ending ATP Finals, which gets underway Sunday, will get some quizzical looks this year with several familiar faces conspicuous by their absence.
Home favourite Andy Murray, former World No.1 Novak Djokovic, Swiss Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori, along with his Japanese fan club, are all absent from this year’s event with injuries.
Nadal’s participation is also clouded by a knee injury which hardly augurs well for the 31-year-old trying to claim the only big prize to elude him. He practiced Friday though, but was less than positive about his chances of being 100 per cent fit.
Alexander Zverev, Grigor Dimitrov, David Goffin and Jack Sock – all first-time qualifiers – are not second-rate stand-ins so both the favourites Federer and Nadal will have to be wary about them.
Given the situation, one can easily expect a Rafa-Roger mouth-watering final. However, keeping in mind the condition of the Spaniard’s knee, the other players in his group will definitely look for an opening. Nadal has said earlier that he is trying his level best to retain top fitness, but then niggles have a tendency to come back at the wrong time.
Zevrev, Cilic and Dimitrov – all have the potential to beat either the Swiss or the Spaniard on their day. Hence the tournament will not be bereft of exciting moments. But even then such has been the ominous form of both Federer and Nadal, throughout the season, that the dice is loaded heavily in favour of them.
Unless off course the tennis gods decide otherwise.
reuters
