ATP World Tour article (subbed)

Subbed version of my article written yesterday, ready to be (hopefully) published in the November issue of Nerve* magazine - the BU student-run magazine.

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London serves eight of the best
By James Hartnett

With a little over a month to go the wait is almost over for the ATP World Tour Finals, arguably the season’s most illustrious tennis competition, to hit London once again.

The top eight male players in the world will battle it out in the event, which will start on November 22nd at the London O2 arena. In the round robin tournament, the top two men in each pool will compete in the semi-finals for the right to be crowned champion.
Swiss World No.1 Roger Federer has lifted the trophy an impressive five times already and is favourite to clinch the title, and the tidy $5m prize fund, once more. However, the competition is tougher than ever with World No.2 Rafael Nadal and the rising Argentinean star Juan Martin Del Potro both in blistering form.
Nadal has recovered from glandular fever and a back problem which saw a turbulent string of results allow Brit Andy Murray to pinch the No.2 spot, albeit momentarily, from his grasp before the Spaniard reclaimed his seeding with an impressive run of late on the ATP tour.
Serbian World No.4 and last year’s winner Novak Djokovic is hot on Murray’s heels in the world rankings, and has already firmly booked his place in the World Tour Finals. Sixth-ranked American powerhouse Andy Roddick is some way off the pace of the formidable ‘top five’, yet with a string of decent results this year he too is set to book his place in the Finals.
The battle for the last two places is on a knife edge, with French pair Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon, Russian Nikolay Davydenko, Spaniard Fernando Verdasco all in the running. Russian No.1 Davydenko looking good to take one of the two places on offer with a convincing victory over Nadal to claim last month’s Shanghai Masters title, demonstrating that nobody can be written off for a name on the coveted trophy in the last big tournament of the season, whilst it looks likely that Tsonga will take up a slot with the No.7 having a comfortable points lead ahead of his rivals.