All eyes will be on the o2 Arena in London on Sunday as the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals get underway and what a star studded line up it is that will get the tournament off to a high quality start.
The singles on the opening day sees Novak Djokovic taking on Japan’s finest Kei Nishikori in the afternoon session while Roger Federer takes on Tomas Berdych in the evening one. Jamie Murray and the Bryan Brothers are all in action in the doubles too.
Djokovic is in the middle of an insane spell of tennis at the minute where very few have been able to get near him but this is an interesting proposition because he hasn’t opened a tournament too often and it will be worth a look to see how quickly he comes to terms with conditions.
Kei Nishikori appeared to be going to London carrying an injury after the way he lost in the Paris Masters just over a week ago but he has had almost two weeks to get over that so if he is physically in a good place he knows he can challenge Djokovic.
These two have met six times and in their last five meetings only once has Nishikori not taken a set so this could be a much closer opening to the tournament than it looks on paper. I don’t think Nishikori will win ultimately but he seems to know how to stretch Djokovic to the limit and if he can do that and win a set or keep one tight he’ll remain inside the 5.5 game handicap.
In the second match I’m looking at Roger Federer to get the job done. He failed in Paris but that might only have fuelled his fire more. He had a cold on that occasion so we can forgive him that.
Berdych has been to London on plenty of occasions for this tournament but he rarely convinces me when he’s there and I don’t see Federer slipping up here. In fact I would expect the Swiss star to get off to a straight sets win as quickly as possible to prepare for the sterner tests that lie in store later in the week.
In the doubles there are two pretty strong favourites. I thought long and hard about opposing Murray and Peers with the Italian pair but the crowd will be against the Italians and I can’t be taking the feisty pairing against the crowd as well as Murray and Peers. The Bryans are too short in the other match but should win.
Back K.Nishikori (+5.5 games) to beat N.Djokovic for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with BetVictor
Back R.Federer (-3.5 games) to beat T.Berdych for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Betfred
