Nikolay Davydenko finished off an incredible week in London by winning the biggest title of his career, beating Juan Martin del Potro 6-3, 6-4 in the finals of the World Tour Final in London's O2 Arena.  Davydenko beat all three 2009 Slam winners on his way to the title, including his first win in thirteen tries over Roger Federer.

del Potro's turned into a pretty classy guy of late, so he would never have brought up what was probably a big reason for his lopsided loss.  del Potro had to play the night session on Saturday in the semifinals, meaning that he had a much quicker turnaround than did Davydenko.  And after going long with a third set tiebreaker deep in the night, it was always going to be an uphill climb for del Potro to recover fully some sixteen hours later.

There is usually a sense that whoever wins the WTF/TMC/YEC is immediately a front runner to win the Australian Open, but I'm not so sure that's the case here.  The heat and quicker surface should keep him from making too much noise down under.  But a deep run at the French Open is certainly looking like a decent bet.

With three players finishing round robin play Group B was decided by the first tiebreaking criteria, number of sets won and lost.  Soderling (5-2) and Davydenko (5-3) barely edged out Djokovic (4-3) for the two semifinal spots, despite being the two lowest ranked players in their group.

But as close as Group B was, Group A was even closer.  In a group which saw all six matches played last three sets, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, and Juan Martin del Potro all had won two matches, and each had a 5-4 record in terms of sets won and lost.

And it wasn't clear cut after that, going into the second tiebreaking measure. The three had incredibly close games won and loss differentials, which wound up deciding the two semifinalists to emerge from the three-way knot.  Federer had a games record of 44-40, which was good enough to be first.  del Potro (45-43) barely snuck by Murray (44-43) for the final semifinal berth from Group A, despite Murray beating del Potro in their head to head match-up.  The Brits, understandably, have been left with a bad taste in their mouths about the whole thing.

Once it comes down to the second tiebreaking category, like it did in this instance, it's bound to be fairly arbitrary.  A quick non-tennis aside on the topic of tie breaking criteria--how is away goals a valid tiebreak for these World Cup qualifying matches? If, for example, Croatia and Poland tie 0-0 in Warsaw, then tie 1-1 in Kiev, Poland gets through? Completely arbitrary, even if home field advantage is a recognized intangible.  

Last (and least), it was a bad week for the Spaniards, to be sure. Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco went a combined 0-6 on the week, finishing last in their respective groups.  The two Spaniards were the only winless players in the tournament, with each of the six other competitors winning two matches apiece.  Fernando Verdasco put up three valiant fights in his three matches, all three of which were three-setters (including two of the third set tiebreak variety). Nadal, on the other hand, was totally hapless, not winning so much as a single set during the event.  Sadly, for Nadal, this was a totally foreseeable performance.  He hasn't been the same player in the slightest since Madrid, and he has a long way to go if he wants to come close to defending his Australian Open title.  In the more immediate future, he (and Verdasco) have got to shape up in time for next week's Davis Cup final vs. the rested Czech Republic if Spain wants to avoid what would be a massive upset.

I'm guessing there will be a rematch of this year's US Open final on Sunday in London, though with how well Soderling has been playing, a rematch of the French Open final wouldn't be entirely shocking either.

In his first time playing in London since winning that epic Wimbledon final in 2008, Rafael Nadal looked like a shadow of the player he was then in his first WTF match against Robin Soderling, which was won in straight sets by the Swede by the tally of 6-4, 6-4.

Soderling came off the blocks flying, quickly going up a break for 3-0 before Nadal got himself into the match by breaking back for 3-2.  But Soderling's power got the better of Nadal time and time again, as Nadal struggled to take command of rallies with shots that spun into the middle of the court time and time again.

The second set was more of the same, with Nadal's counter-punching simply not enough to get the job done, even on a fairly slow hard court.  If Nadal doesn't find a way to play far more aggressively this week, he very well may go 0-3.  It's tough to see him beating Djokovic or even Davydenko playing such passive tennis.  Nadal has won only once since Madrid against a top ten opponent, against #9 Tsonga in Paris just this month.

Djokovic and Davydenko, Nadal's aforementioned next two opponents, both looked sharp in their first round tilt against one another.  Djokovic had been picked by many to win this event because of how well he's played of late, but he looked anything but hot in the beginning of this match.  Davydenko took the first set 6-3 and looked on his way to taking the match in straight sets before folding at the end of both the second and third sets, losing the match 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Group A is back in action Tuesday, as Sunday's losers face off in a del Potro vs. Verdasco in a match that should feature enough blazing winners to illuminate the unbelievably dark O2 Arena.  The night session is the headline match of the entire round robin, with 1-0 Roger Federer battling 1-0 Andy Murray for what should be a guaranteed spot in the semifinals.  I'll go with the younger player to win in three in each match.

Andy Murray got the 2009 WTF off to a rousing start in his home country's largest city Sunday, outlasting Juan Martin del Potro over three sets to get the first win of the round robin by the score of 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

With the crowd on his side and the slow, hard courts in the O2 arena being exactly to his liking, its tough to see anyone but Murray winning this group.

Roger Federer had a decidedly tougher go of it early on in his first match against Fernando Verdasco.  Federer wasn't being anywhere near aggressive enough in the rallies, and the always aggressive Verdasco took full advantage, going up an early break and holding on to take the first set 6-4.

It really seemed like a matter of when, not if, Verdasco would collapse.  And when he did, in the twelfth game of the second set, he did so in spectacular fashion.  Especially choke-licious was an overhead he hit from the baseline that bounced before hitting the chair umpire's chair.

Federer made short work of the third set, racing out to a 5-0 lead before sealing the match 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.  Verdasco looked thoroughly demoralized by the end of the ordeal, and I can't say I much like his chances against either Murray or del Potro.