ATP World Tour Finals - Summarising the tales of the season

Another season of professional men’s tennis came to an end this weekend with the conclusion of the ATP World Tour Finals. Well, almost came to an end, if you were to consider the ITF-run Davis Cup finals coming up.

Over the course of the last week, the eight best tennis players in the world met in London and engaged in heated tussles with each other. What resulted was a series of exciting encounters (mostly in the round-robin stage) and a series of duds (mostly in the playoffs stage).

Nevertheless, we were provided with a fascinating look into various storylines in the tournament that closely adhered to individual threads that have developed over the course of the last year. If ever a season could be captured in the blink of an eye, this ATP World Tour Finals did it for us.

So what exactly did we learn last week? What tennis truths of the year were reinforced in our minds by those hardy competitors on those blue courts in London?

The bright, uncertain tomorrow

Rafael Nadal

The final being contested between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, world numbers 1 and 2, was an obvious fitting finale to a tennis season dominated at almost every point in time by either one of them.

The fact that both players entered Monday’s final undefeated served to reinforce the current gulf between them and the rest of the tour. Djokovic proceeded to score a convincing victory, just short of what might be called a drubbing, over the world number one in the final.

But even this one-sided result of an extremely hyped-up match was but a natural end to how the season progressed. Nadal kicked off his spectacular return from injury early this year on his much beloved clay courts, and extended his domination of the season as far as he ever has before, all the way to his second US Open crown and the No. 1 ranking.

Perhaps the dethroning had a liberating effect, perhaps it brought about a vengeful focus, but Djokovic has been a man on a mission since then, remaining undefeated till the end of the season, with four titles, including two victories over Nadal.

This shift in momentum is again only symptomatic of the rivalry between these two champions over the years. Their battles have been characterized by ever-changing dynamics, with Nadal being a clearly superior player to begin with, Djokovic bursting through in 2011 to the extent of usurping Nadal even on clay, Nadal pulling away again with a new, improved aggressive game, and now, this latest Djokovic streak. Their individual matches may not always be classics, though they have had their share, but their rivalry has definitely built into one.

What all this means is that we will enter 2014 not sure who the best tennis player on the planet is. Will Djokovic continue to build on his recent success? Or will there be yet another change in momentum? The future of men’s tennis at the top looks as bright as it looks uncertain.

Rolling stone gathering moss

Roger Federer

Another equally dramatic storyline this year has been Roger Federer’s sobering fall from grace. Beginning the season at No. 2, he has slip-slided his way to No. 6 now, and in the process, endured unprecedented losses to lowly rivals with unfamiliar names like Delbonis, Brands and Stakhovsky.

This year, we saw him finally give up his record Grand Slam quarterfinal streak, pick up just one title, fall to his lowest ranking in the last 10 seasons, and generally walk around looking like a man of 32 years.

It was a measure of the new, lowered sense of expectations from Federer that his semifinal appearance at the Tour Finals, a tournament on his favourite surface which he has won 6 times before, was certified as a positive end to the season for him.

The fire still burns within, as we saw with the multiple stirring comebacks he executed in his encounter with del Potro in a humdinger of a deciding round-robin match. The class still exudes, as we saw with the eye-popping rallies and winners over the course of the week in London. It is the consistency of excellence in play, however, that we may have to learn to live without in the future.

Federer continues to believe in his abilities, as any sports professional still playing the game should. But it might be getting harder and harder for his fans to do so in the coming days.

Waiting for Godot

Juan Martin del Potro

The ‘comeback’ from injury by Juan Martin del Potro continues to be excruciatingly slow. As observers of the game, we are still waiting for the Tower of Tandil to finally hit his stride, to reach the place on the tennis totem-pole where he belongs. The popular perception remains that this place is in the mythical ‘Big Four’ category at the top of the hierarchy and not in the ‘Tier-1 Contenders’ category where he currently resides.

This year, he seemed to make progress, with some consistent results though the season, a memorable match against Djokovic in Wimbledon, and some big wins on hard courts in the fall. But frustratingly, he continues to suffer the kind of sporadic losses that prevent him from being compared to a Nadal or a Djokovic.

The latest was in the ATP Tour Finals last week, where an extended appearance, up to at least the finals, would have gone a long way in establishing an excellent 2013 report card for him. Instead, the big man conjured to lose to Federer, a man he ‘should’ beat on current form, after holding a winning position in a do-or-die encounter, and proceeded to exit at the round-robin stage itself.

Interestingly, Federer’s current role in the greater scheme of things seems to be that of a testing-board for the first wave of top-tier challengers. The likes of Berdych, Ferrer and Wawrinka should fancy their changes against a possibly ageing star, before considering a climb to the rarefied heights of Nadal and Djokovic.

On that front, del Potro came up short to end his year, not once but twice, considering his loss to Federer at Paris as well just a week earlier.

So we continue to wait for del Potro to take that step up in consistency of results over players he ‘should’ beat. But the longer we wait, the more we might believe that he has already reached his peak in the pecking order.

Carpe diem!

Stanislas Wawrinka

He may not have won the official award for the ATP’s Most Improved Player of the Year (even though he was nominated), but Stanislas Wawrinka surely has had a season to remember. He began the year with a bang, with what was, in my opinion, the best singles match of the year – a five-set barn-burner against Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open. He ended the season on fire as well, with a semifinal appearance on debut at the World Tour Finals.

He played some excellent matches against Berdych and Ferrer in the tournament, continuing with the consistent results he has had through the year against top opposition. Of course, gaping holes still remain in the resume. He is still to win even a set against Nadal in his career, and he failed to convert opportunities into victories against Djokovic at Grand Slams, but nevertheless, Wawrinka has seen a dramatic increase in his profile over the year.

He no longer languishes under the shadow of Federer, but is now actually pushing to become the top-ranked Swiss player. On current trends, that may become a reality sooner rather than later.

Wawrinka himself credits these results to an increased level of confidence in his own abilities that he has learnt to possess, and a greater inclination to seize the moment as it presents itself. That is easy to believe looking at his game, which is a pleasure to behold with his ripping groundstrokes looking to seize the initiative whenever possible.

So the World Tour Finals of 2013 managed to remain true to its ambitions – to showcase the best of the current ATP year. At various points in the week, we were treated to Djokovic’s determination, Nadal’s inspiration, Federer’s poignancy, del Potro’s frustration and Wawrinka’s brilliance.

As the season-ending marker on the ATP calendar, it highlighted the storylines that we had diligently followed through the year, and managed to leave us excited for the next season to begin.

Towards that end, this might have been the perfect curtain call for 2013.