The final day of the round robin portion takes place at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals on Friday,
with all four players still alive and making their last efforts for semi-final berths at the season-ender.
First up is World No. 1 Rafael Nadal against No. 6 seed Tomas Berdych. Nadal leads the head-tohead
8-3 against Berdych.The Czech won three of their first four meetings, but since the start of the
2007 season Nadal is 7-0, never even losing a set against the Czech in over four years now (17-0 in
sets, with only three going to tie-breaks). In their most recent meeting, Nadal scored a 63 75 64 win in
the Wimbledon final on July 4, never losing his serve (and breaking four times). This will be the third
2010 Grand Slam final played this week (along with Australian Open and US Open).
If Nadal beats Berdych for the eighth straight time, he will qualify for the semi-finals as Group Winner;
in fact, if Nadal loses the match he still has an excellent chance to reach the semi-finals (see
scenarios below). If Berdych loses in three sets and Roddick defeats Djokovic in straight sets,
Berdych will qualify for the semi-finals.
Second up is No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic facing No. 8 seed Andy Roddick. Roddick has had the
upper hand against Djokovic in their rivalry, leading the head-to-head, 5-2; in fact, after losing two of
their first three meetings, Roddick has completely dominated since the start of the 2009 season, going
4-0 against the Serb (losing just one set in those four straight wins). The standout statistic there is
Roddick's near-invincibility on his serve: combined over those last four meetings, Roddick is 146-31
on first serve points (82%) and 43-3 in service games (93% - broken only three times).
Whoever wins the second match, there are several scenarios for the group, all dependent on the first
match. There are possibilities for a three-way tie at 2-1 (if Berdych and Djokovic win their matches)
and another possibility for a three-way tie at 1-2 (if Nadal and Roddick win). All will be far clearer after
the first match of the day is done, and for more on all of the specific scenarios, see below.
In the doubles, No. 2 seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic play No. 5 seeds Lukasz Kubot and
Oliver Marach (Nestor and Zimonjic have won their last three meetings, all in straight sets) and No. 3
seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi face No. 7 seeds Wesley Moodie and Dick Norman (a
first-time encounter). Nestor and Zimonjic have already qualified for the semi-finals; the winner of the
second doubles match between Bhupathi-Mirnyi and Moodie-Norman will be the other semi-finalist.
