As the group stages of the ATP World Tour Finals head to a close this evening, we expect there to be plenty of drama across the weekend as the knockout-stages begin.
Our tennis expert gives you his best bets ahead of the action at London’s O2 Arena.
Federer On Form
Roger Federer stormed into the semi-final of the ATP World Finals with an emphatic one hour and a quarter victory over Kevin Anderson.
After falling to defeat in the opening group game in a stuttering start against Kei Nishikori, the 37-year-old has found his feet as the tournament has progressed, and he’s in fine shape should a semi-final/final clash with world number one and arch rival Novak Djokovic loom.
Federer will be looking to avenge the defeat suffered in the Paris Masters in the pair’s last meeting in competitive action, and a clash between the two at this tournament has never looked more enthralling.
Friday Permutations
Novak Djokovic has already secured a semi-final spot with two successive victories, but Alexander Zverev knows a win against John Isner in his final round-robin match will ensure he takes the second semi-final spot from the group.
The German could also progress to the last four from Group Guga Kuerten if he loses in three sets and Djokovic wins his meeting with Marin Cilic. This is a likely scenario considering Cilic has never progressed through the group matches in three previous ATP World Finals appearances.
Djokovic is playing some of his best tennis of his career, remarkable considering how far from the top he had fallen not 18 months ago. However, Cilic has proved victorious over Djokovic once in three meetings this year and has an outside chance to qualify for the knockout stage.
We make Cilic a nice outside bet to beat Djokovic and keep his hopes alive in the competition at 9/2 with Grosvenorsport.com.
The safer option on tonight’s matches has to be a Djokovic and Zverev win double at 8/13. Both have played fine tennis in the lead up to these final round-robin matches and are so far, the two most worthy participants to progress from Group Guga Kuerten.
Looking to the weekend
Should both Djokovic and Zverev both win, the latter will go on to face Roger Federer in the semi-final.
The German has beaten Federer twice in his career to date, and it won’t be a huge shock to see him progress through to the final on Saturday.
A Zverev victory will be nicely priced on the weekend, so it’s one to look forward to should results go that way today.
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