“I still feel that my best years are ahead,” said Andy Murray this summer, during a sponsor appearance at the Thruxton race track in Hampshire. History and precedent were against him, because only one man in the modern era – Andre Agassi – has won multiple Grand Slam titles after his 30th birthday. Murray turned 29 in May. Yet from that moment in early June when he made his claim, standing alongside the WWII aircraft hangars at the side of the track, Murray produced the most dominant sequence of his career. The statistics were extraordinary. Going into next week’s Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, he has lost just three matches since Roland Garros. In a twist that no one would...
Combine a massive serve with gargantuan groundstrokes, sound volleys and an ability to produce your best on the biggest occasions, and what do you have? In Marin Cilic, someone none of the other seven competitors at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals will enjoy seeing on the other side of the net. This is the second time Cilic has qualified for the season-ending tournament. On his debut in 2014 – the same year he won his first and, to date, only Grand Slam title at the US Open – he lost all three of his group matches in London, hampered by a niggling arm injury, and he left hugely disappointed, determined to return. Motivation, then, will be high for the...
There are all sorts of perks to being tennis’s centre of gravity, the resident of the rankings penthouse, the figure on the top line of every draw sheet. For one thing, winning never loses its savour. Success is its own reward, especially in competitive sport. Besides that, the top player – and only the top player – experiences that aura of walking into a locker room each time knowing he is the man to beat. Yes, there are also the material trappings of being the World No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, with the endorsements and the celebrity opportunity and the income. And yet, as the cliché goes, one can be the loneliest number. It can be solitary and...
Kei Nishikori can fill a stadium without even playing a match. Anyone who had imagined that the Japanese public’s love and hysteria for Nishikori couldn’t possibly become any more intense – that peak-Kei had already been established – was made to reconsider during this season’s Tokyo tournament. That was when one of his practice sessions drew an audience of more than 9,000. That figure even astounded some of the tournament’s organisers (who have seen some hysteria in their time, having previously not publicised his training schedule for fear of a crush). It would seem we have reached a new level of intensity in the relationship between Nishikori and his public – you suspect that crowds will now gather in Tokyo if...
For the second consecutive year, fans will celebrate a new year-end No. 1 doubles team and doubles player on the ATP World Tour. And it will all come down to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, which starts Sunday at The O2 in London. Buy Tickets Now Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, currently No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings, control their fate in both races. The Frenchmen can clinch the team year-end No. 1 with their first Barclays ATP World Tour Finals title. Barclays ATP World Tour Finals Points By Round - Final Year-End Doubles Ranking Points Herbert/Mahut W F SF 3-0 2-1 1-2 0-3 3-0 9325 8825 8425 8425 2-1 9125 8625 8225 8225 1-2 8925...