Tennis: Murray out of ATP World Tour Finals by single game

Published on Friday 27 November 2009 08:41

ANDY MURRAY was today contemplating a shock end to his season after one of tennis' strangest nights. The British No.1 had left the O2 Arena yesterday thinking a place in the last four of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals was all but assured after his 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/3) victory over Fernando Verdasco.

The permutations that would have denied him seemed unlikely: Juan Martin del Potro had to beat Roger Federer in three sets and by such a scoreline that those two players would have a better games percentage than Murray. Incredibly that is what transpired, with Del Potro taking the second semi-final spot by virtue of having won 45 games and lost 43 while Murray's record was 44-43.

The Scot looked safe at 3-3 in the decider, Federer needing only to win another game to eliminate Del Potro. And it looked even better when he engineered three break points on the Argentine's serve. But amazingly those slipped away and the world No.1 was promptly broken before Del Potro served out the 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 victory with an ace.

The margins – only 0.5 per cent separated the pair – were so small that none of the three players, or the packed O2 Arena, knew the outcome and it took almost half an hour for the ATP to confirm Del Potro's progress. Murray said on Twitter: "Anyone know what's going on? I think I'm (out) but the rules aren't worded too well."

Earlier, the 22-year-old had defended the round-robin system, saying: "I don't actually think that it's that complicated but everyone makes it sound so complicated. The people that go through are the ones that deserve to."

Whether Murray was feeling the same this morning is perhaps doubtful but he will almost certainly be reflecting today on the manner of his victory over Verdasco, where he had 13 break points but took only one and eventually needed a third-set tie-break to secure victory.

Murray, though, credited Verdasco for raising his game on the big points. He said: "Maybe on two or three of them I had opportunities to do a little bit more with my return. Unfortunately, I can't play great on every point. But he came up with great shots and great serves."

The calculators could be back out at the O2 today for the conclusion of Group B, although there is only one place to play for after Robin Soderling qualified on Wednesday. Rafael Nadal has already been eliminated so the final spot will go to either Novak Djokovic, who was due to take on Nadal this afternoon, or Nikolay Davydenko, who plays Soderling in the evening match.