Preamble
Hello world!
It’s fair to say Andy Murray has had quite a 2014. At the beginning of the year, the Scot was ranked No4 in the world and by July, he was ranked tenth before later dropping out of the top 10 for the first time in six years. He was there as late as last month with little hope of making the top six spot he needed to qualify for today.
Andy! What were you doing?! You’re supposed to be one of the Big Four remember?! Stop getting involved with silly things like national identity when you should be concentrating on important stuff like a return winners down the line and deliciously cushioned cross-court half-volleys! You’re never going to make the ATP World Tour Finals at this rate!
But he’s made it. He might have had to play 23 matches in 37 days to catapult himself back up the rankings, but Murray is made of stern stuff yeah? Victories in Shenzhen, Vienna and Valencia have helped, and going into the end-of-yeah finale, it could be argued that Murray is, on home-ish soil, one of the form players here. A Grand Slam it is not, but none of the player will relish facing the 27-year-old, including his opponent today, Kei Nishikori.
Nishikori is making his O2 debut here and it appears the Japanese US Open finalist is not short of confidence.
“I want to win the whole thing. But it will be a tough tournament. If I can play good tennis for five matches, I will have a chance to win the whole thing. I just need to believe in myself. Next year, I want to be Top 5 all the time and maybe rise to No. 3 or No. 2. I hope to reach a Grand Slam final again and win one of the Masters 1000s next year.”
Should be a cracker! Let’s do this!
First serve: 2pm GMT.
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