Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, London

[CR4] Stan Wawrinka (SUI) vs. [CR7] David Ferrer (ESP)

Wawrinka got off to a horrible start in his first match on Monday.  Although initially it appeared as if he was going to defeat Nadal again, things quickly unraveled for the 2015 French Open Champion.  I have never seen him play so poorly in all the years I have watched him play.  He was disengaged and seemed not to care that the match was rapidly slipping away.  It appeared as if he tried to make really bad errors.  However, we will never know fully what Wawrinka was thinking or feeling during that match to perform so badly.  In his press conference, he admitted that he had to change things and try to perform better today.  It did not look that way initially and Ferrer actually served for the first set at 5-4, only to lose serve twice to lose the set.  Wawrinka flipped a switch mentally and Ferrer could not keep up.  His powerful ground strokes kept Ferrer off balanced the rest of the match and Ferrer never recovered his equilibrium after losing the first set.  Wawrinka evened their head-to-head 7:7 with his 7-5, 6-2 victory and keeps alive his hope of making the semifinals.

Other winners today were the French duo of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, who defeated Marcin Matkowski and Nenad Zimonjic 5-7, 6-3, 10-8. They almost let another match slip away again, but managed at the last-minute to hold on to get the victory.

Rafael Nadal got a little revenge today defeating Andy Murray 6-4, 6-1.  It does not quite make up for the ATP Masters 1000 Madrid title that he lost earlier this year to Murray, but it’s another positive for Nadal.

Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau defeated Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo 6-4, 7-6(3)and clinched their berth in the semifinals.