Barclays ATP World Tour Finals – Semi Finals

The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals of Tennis at the 02 Arena London, have reached the semi finals stage, which take place on Saturday, but not without some confusion. The ATF was wearing a little egg on its face at the conclusion of Thursday’s games, as the round-robin format confused everyone, not least the players involved themselves. Britain’s Andy Murray beat Fernando Verdasco on Thursday in the Group A match, and had to wait until the outcome of Roger Federer v Del Potro. The Murray camp was cheering for the Swiss Superstar Federer, but he fell in three sets to Del Potro, which meant that Federer, Del Potro and Murray all finished the group on equal points, with equal wins, and each having won and lost the exact same amount of sets.

Despite winning two out of his three games, it was Andy Murray who was the unfortunate one of the trio, as qualification places were decided by percentage of games won. If Del Potro had dropped just one more game in his victory over Federer, then Murray would have gone through. It was all that close in the end of season prize-laden tournament. Confusion was abound though when no official word was heard from the ATP as to who had qualified after the Federer v Del Potro match. Spectators left the arena, none the wiser, Andy Murray was twittering to see if anyone knew what was happening, and Del Potro never heard until half an hour after his triumph over Roger Federer that is was he who had qualified.

Still, everything is settled now, and it is on to the semi finals, both of which can be seen on Bet365. The online bookmakers are streaming the matches from London, and it gives you the opportunity to watch and enjoy some live in-play betting with a Bet365 account. Roger Federer and Juan Martin del Potro it is who go through from Group A, with Robin Soderling and Nikolay Davydenko having qualified from Group B at the expense of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Therefore, the line-up for Saturday’s semi-finals are as thus:

Nikolay Davydenko (3/1 SkyBet) v Roger Federer (2/7 Ladbrokes) at 2.15pm GMT
Robin Soderling (13/8 SkyBet) v Juan Martin Del Potro (4/7 Stan James) at 8.45pm GMT

Roger Federer reclaimed his crown as World Number One at the end of the year, for the fifth time in his career. He took the title back from Rafael Nadal, who lost all three of his matches in the ATP World Tour Finals and hasn’t looked in good shape or form for a while. So Roger Federer will remain the man to beat, but Del Potro will fancy his chances again if they meet again in the final. Both Federer and Del Potro will start as favourites for the respective semi finals, especially as Davydenko has not managed to beat Federer in the past 12 encounters.

The Tournament at the O2 Arena has been a success so far, with some tennis having been played by the best players in the world. If you want to keep up with the action, then online bookmakers Bet365 are streaming all of the singles matches via their website. Just go and open an account, make the best of their matched initial deposit while you are it, and follow the ATP World Tour Finals all the way to its conclusion.

To Win Outright
Roger Federer – 10/11 at Ladbrokes
Juan Martin Del Potro - 5/2 at Stan James
Robin Soderling – 13/2 at Boylesports
Nikolay Davydenko – 7/1 at Ladbrokes