Saturday is the penultimate day of the ATP season as the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Finals take place inside the o2 Arena over what should be two fascinating and high quality sessions of tennis.
The big names have all made it through to the knockout stages in the singles event while the doubles is bubbling up nicely even in the absence of the number one seeds so everything really is laid out for a top class day.
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Afternoon Session
Jamie Murray & Bruno Soares vs Mike Bryan & Jack Sock
The day begins with the pick of the doubles matches as the number four seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares take on the American pairing of Mike Bryan and Jack Sock for a place in the final of the competition on Sunday.
Murray and Soares went unbeaten in the group stage which is to their credit whereas Bryan and Sock have to back up a big defeat in their final group match on Friday evening although to be fair to them they were already through so it might be that they were saving themselves a little for this semi-final.
I’m looking forward to this match as it has the potential to be an absolute cracker especially if Sock and Bryan are on form. They have been my pick since the week started though so I’m going to let my outright bet ride rather than get involved in a bit of guessing.
Roger Federer vs Alexander Zverev
The opening singles semi-final sees Roger Federer looking to make it to another o2 final when he takes on the classy German player Alexander Zverev in what looks like bring the pick of the matches on the day.
Federer hasn’t been anything like his best this week and has actually struggled at times although in fairness he has improved as the week has gone on. I guess you could say the same for Zverev who played a really good match against John Isner on Friday to make it into this semi-final and now he is here he will want to give a good account of himself.
I think we could be in for something of a lengthy battle here. Zverev has a couple of wins in five matches against Federer so he knows that he can beat him which is often half the battle against these top players. You’d fancy Federer to come through but he is no stranger to three set semi-finals here. He lost in one last year and while I don’t think he’ll lose here I do think he’ll need more than 23.5 game to get this job done.
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Evening Session
Nicolas Mahut & Pierre-Hugues Herbert vs Juan Sebastian Cabal & Robert Farah
The second semi-final of the doubles sees the last team into the field in the French pairing of Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert taking on the Colombian duo of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah who are now the highest seeds remaining in the event.
You would think this would be a close semi-final given what is at stake and I see it as being that too. The French pair have looked very good this week while the Colombians have been one of the teams of the year. Class can sometimes rise to the top here but I must admit that I like the form of the French team who have plenty to play for this week and next. I fancy they’ll get the job done but we’ve seen all week backing odds on shots is not the way forward here.
Novak Djokovic vs Kevin Anderson
The final match of what appears to be an exciting day is a repeat of the Wimbledon final as Novak Djokovic takes on Kevin Anderson for the other place in Sunday’s final. Djokovic won that Wimbledon clash and is a huge favourite to win this one too.
Djokovic has looked in ominous form this week. He is yet to drop a set and has only been taken beyond 10 games in a set once despite having three big servers in his group. Anderson flew out of the traps against Dominic Thiem and then took advantage of a no show from Kei Nishikori but struggled against Federer and the fear is that this could be too much for him.
Djokovic has won the last seven matches between these two and only in one of them has Anderson registered a set on the board. He was well beaten at Wimbledon and while he offered a little more in Shanghai more recently he still had no answer to Djokovic. I don’t think he will here either.
Tips
WON – Back R.Federer vs A.Zverev – Over 23.5 games for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Boylesports
Back it here:
WON – Back N.Djokovic (-4.5 games) to beat K.Anderson for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Betfred
Back him here:
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