ATP Finals Day 2 – Nishikori trashes Wawrinka

In the first match of day 2 of the ATP World Tour Finals, I feel a bit sorry for the audience who probably expected a tough fight between Wawrinka and Nishikori, but the Swiss US Open champion didn’t look like a half of himself today and was really slow-footed during his 2-6 3-6 loss. Maybe there was looming injury concerns, maybe he was just tired, but it didn’t look inspiring for Wawrinka fans. On the other hand, Nishikori’s legs looked to be on fire and he handled Wawrinka’s pace with ease and managed to deflect most shots back with good depth. Nishikori really likes the surface and I think he has a good chance of qualifying for the semi-finals judging by this performance.

What’s in store for Wawrinka? Well, he needs to really up his game for his next round match that’s for sure.

Next up was Murray vs Cilic. Like I wrote in my previous post, I thought Murray would extend his win streak to 20 and that’s exactly what he did with a rather straightforward 6-3 6-2 against a Cilic that wasn’t playing bad, but who just couldn’t hit the winners you need to beat Murray these days. He just doesn’t give you anything and it almost reminds me of Rafa when he was at his peak. I believe this is definitely Murray’s moment and if he keeps it up he can hold on to the world number one status for a while more.

This means the McEnroe groups has two favourites for qualifying and that’s Nishikori and Murray.

ATP WORLD TOUR FINALS 2016

McEnroe Group

Andy Murray 1-0 (2-0)
Stan Wawrinka 0-1 (0-2)
Kei Nishikori 1-0 (2-0)
Marin Cilic 0-1 (0-2)

Lendl Group

Novak Djokovic 1-0 (2-1)
Milos Raonic 0-0 (0-0)
Gael Monfils 0-0 (0-0)
Dominic Thiem 0-1 (1-2)

Year-end world number one ranking scenarios