All matches to be LIVE on Tennis Channel except the final, which ESPN2 will have.

Sunday Order of Play
Nestor/Zimonjic vs Fyrstenberg/Matkowski at 7:30 AM
Andy Murray vs Juan Martin Del Potro at 9:15 AM
Bhupathi/Knowles vs Cermak/Mertinak at 2 PM
Roger Federer vs Fernando Verdasco at 3:45 PM

Monday Order of Play
B Bryan/M Bryan vs Mirnyi/Ram at 7:30 AM
Rafael Nadal vs Robin Soderling at 9:15 AM
Dlouhy/Paes vs Kubot/Marach at 2 PM
Novak Djokovic vs Nikolay Davydenko at 3:45 PM

Tuesday Order of Play - Time to be determined
Roger Federer vs Juan Martin Del Potro
Andy Murray vs Fernando Verdasco
Nestor/Zimonjic vs Cermak/Mertinak
Bhupathi/Knowles vs Fyrstenberg/Matkowski

Wednesday Order of Play - Time to be determined
Rafael Nadal vs Nikolay Davydenko
Novak Djokovic vs Robin Soderling
B Bryan/M Bryan vs Kubot/Marach
Dlouhy/Paes vs Mirnyi/Ram

Thursday Order of Play - Time to be determined
Roger Federer vs Andy Murray
Juan Martin Del Potro vs Fernando Verdasco
Nestor/Zimonjic vs Bhupathi/Knowles
Cermak/Mertinak vs Fyrstenberg/Matkowski

Friday Order of Play - Time to be determined
Rafael Nadal vs Novak Djokovic
Nikolay Davydenko vs Robin Soderling
B Bryan/M Bryan vs Dlouhy/Paes
Kubot/Marach vs Mirnyi/Ram

Tennistv.com will show all doubles matches for free and for 24.95 you can stream all the singles matches

Here is the link telling us about doubles:

http://tinyurl.com/ykgsyuc

Semifinals
Afternoon session - 7:30 AM for doubles and 9:15 AM for singles
Evening session - 2 PM for doubles and 3:45 PM for singles

Finals
Doubles to be played at 7:30 AM
Singles to be played at 9:30 AM *

* ESPN2 will be on the air at 8 AM with semifinal highlights before the live final

MA,

will Fed play 1st on Tue and Thu?Don't they alternate?

SRao,
Good question. Tournament organizers try to schedule fairly.

Thanks MA for giving us the schedule. Very helpful in making plans.

So the pressure's off nadal. no one thinks he's got a chance to even make the semis. maybe with less pressure he'll play well.

Vamos Rafa!

Annie,
Very true on Rafael. See most people picked 0-3 or 1-2 for him as they think Rafael is getting ready to play Davis Cup indoors on clay.

Reposted from other thread:

Novak is number 1:

http://tinyurl.com/ykzxg5g

Steve Tignor has picked Novak Djokovic to win London.

I have a feeling that Pete Bodo will pick Andy Murray but we will not know the answer until the Podcast is available.

Also reposted from the other thread/

Good afternoon,

Hi MA. Thank you for the last news. I hope you'll reconsider your promise while enjoying your vacation, just in case the g-o-d-s align to jinx you. I would miss you, sincerely.

I'm always relieved that Steve doesn't pick Roger to win any tournament and in this case the WTF. Forget about conspiracies, fixed draws and the like. Steve's predictions are 100% infallible. The chosen one doesn't win.

Master ace thanks for the extended OOP! I can plan my week now! :)

My guess is Novak/Roger final.

Nadal will get beat his group of enormous hitters especially on an indoor hardcourt.

The reason Murray hasnt won a major yet is: you cannot expect 7 opponents to beat themselves. His game is too reliant on things other than himself.

I can only imagine what its like to be in the press room and every question is a variation of, when are you going to retire. It sucks for Pete considering he made 3 straight US Open finals, losing 2 of them before finally winning in 02. I mean a guy who is making major finals...certainly isn't done. lol

oh piffle - feddy playing on turkey day.

and pardon my manners, nice post Pete, and nicely done with the 'Every conflagration begins with a tiny match.'

That being said - it would be nice for fed to get past murray. we'll see if he manages it. If not - I'm on board with murray's first major being the wtf's. Though Nole, if he can just gut it out for another week, is the guy to beat. imo. But maybe Sod will come through? oh hail, i haven't a clue who's going to taket this thing - but that's the fun of it, no?

Pete,
Thanks for the post.You always make me think.
Of all your posts,this has been your most contradictory of all.It's full of contradictory statements and contradictory paragraphs.By the time I finished a paragraph [and got angry reading it,because of Federer bashing!] the immediate next paragraph comforted me :-))Thanks for that.

I'm glad you took the "big picture" and "small picture" in context.Especially after Fed's profound interview.
Now Fed fans can relax and watch the WTF.

Of course I'm rooting for Federer, but if someone had to win other than him then I do hope it's Soderling or the oft-forgotten Davydenko.

also, excuse my ignorance... the final is still played as a best of 5 set match? or has it all been reduced to 2/3?

Good post, Pete, asks a lot of questions and a great deal to consider. But I think you will name Novak or Andy as potential winners.

I'm not good at predictions so I'm just hoping for the highly unlikely to happen!

Looks like Mr. Bodo is leaning toward a final between Djokovic and his ever-picked and ever-disappointing (in major tournaments) Andy ("Squaremouth") Murray. Probably not Federer. Thank Goodness!

Now, if only Tignor will make his predictably incorrect prediction that Federer won't make the Finals, all will be right with the world, and our confidence in a Roger victory will be greater still.

FYI,
In 2008 TMC, Djoko won in 2straight sets,
In 2007 TMC,Fed defeated David Ferrer:62 63 62 [3straight sets]

I guess MA knows if the rules have changed or not for 2009.

BrooklynNY,

In 2009 WTF, all singles matches will be the best of three tie-break sets. All doubles matches will be two sets (no ad) and match tie-break.

The final is usually a best_of_5 (except in 2004, iirc; I dunno why that was an exception). However ATP changed it to best_of_3 since last year. sigh.

*The final is usually a best_of_5 (except in 2004, iirc; I dunno why that was an exception).*

Arun- I was there and they changed it because there was a ton of rain that day and they were just trying to fit in a complete match. They started several hours off schedule because of that blasted rain. Meanwhile during the dealy- I was left to the scanty offerings of the concession and had too much cheap wine and a bad experience with one of those Resnaissance Style turkey legs.

Pete, thank you for being allways so sensitive and looking deeply into the players' psychology. I am really impressed that an athletic editor can approach matters with such delicacy and deep thought. However in the Federet matter let me remind you of a factor that you have not mentioned above and which I think has influenced Roger's life since July: his two kids. Being a mother myself of two young kids(one of them actually was born this year)and taking into account what a sensitive guy Roger is,I cannot believe that having two babies at home does not consume a part of yourself, no matter how many nannies or carers you have. Give Roger a break please. Kids are the sweetest prison and yes, up to a certain point they can lower your wings. He will settle better with the new situation with time, in my opinion.

oh. Thanks for the info, Carrie.

Carrie, I'm going to go pop a few Tums just thinking about your vino/turkey leg experience!

Anne- it was bad...hee hee. I know that there were a variety of reasons why the YEC was only in Houston for two years but I think that one big reason was because they wanted to get away from the craptacular concessions.

All in all- not the most stellar experience. After the long delay and waiting out a ton of rain and a pretty one sided match- we had to drive more than two hours back to Austin in the dark with some rain so we could go to work on Monday morning. I was five years younger then but now- as I getting deeper into my 30s I don’t think I could do it. But I wanted to see Federer in the final darn it come hell or high water.

Hmmmm…sounds like there may be a replay between the Russia/France WC qualifying match?

Roger's made it completely clear that he intends to play at least to the 2012 Olympics which will hopefully quell the call to retirement even if he does start to lose earlier in tournaments.

Best of 3 for ATP is a bunch of pussies.

The final is best of three? bummer. c'mon guys, this is the WTF for crying out loud. It should be best of 5 like the majors. wonder why they changed it last year.

Zoilena: I'd never heard the expression "sweetest prison" before and it's just perfect to describe being home with little ones.

The best of 3 is good for the RR round but come on - it's the finals the YEAR END - they need the final to be best of five. Someone can get 'hot' for 2 sets and beat you. But like the slams - we need this year-end final to be best of 5. Oh well.

Like someone else said - come hell or high water - I don't care what he has to do - I just want Roger to win this thing!

Morning Everyone,

Sigh! Well I see I will be getting up before the Sparrows again with the YEC being in London.

At least the DC being in Spain is more time friendly to me

Bring on Aussie Summer of Tennis I say lol! though beware it is going to be a long,hot Summer here in Oz.

did not realize that this final was still best of 5
anyway - it will be interesting, but I am not that concerned about it
My prediction is that Djokovic and Murray will be the finalists

Djokovic because of his recent stellar play and Murray , who will be fired up and inspired,in front of the London crowd.

However, my sentimental favorite for this week is going to be Verdasco . The experts give him no credit as he literally backed into the event. His best tennis was earlier in the season and he still has Davis cup to play for ( That is why I am not picking Nadal ,My gut tells me his focus will be winning the cup for Spain , this time around )

Vamos Hott Sauce ! Minion , FTW!!!!
:)

wait - sorry , misread - the final is best of 3
shocked - I think this one should be best of 5 , too

Went to Tignor's thread and read his typically lamentable and lame predictions.

Steve's analysis is brilliant, as usual. His predictions are predictably dismal, as usual. Did anyone here think for a moment he wasn't going to pick his punchless underachieving favorite, Murray, over Federer to make the Final? Of course not. At least my confidence in a Fed win has gone up a notch now, and confidence that he'll make the Final has gone up two notches.

Give him an ounce of credit for putting Nole in the Final, but that wasn't exactly a particularly brave or difficult call.

I'm picking a Federer-Djokovic Final. Result is a toss-up, really. So i tossed my lucky coin, which came up Heads. Heads rhymes with 'Fed's'. So I'm picking Roger over Nole, by a microscopic 53% to 47%.

Beth lol! I love your sentiment

Jenn came on late yesterday as wellspoke to her breifly,gee Cameron is 3 months old? where has the time gone hey.

I have always said it should be the Best of 5 sets,this is the final of the year

I would also like to see every Master Series final be the best of 5 also

AM - sorry I missed her :(
and yes, Cam is 3 months old and just adorable
He is really just growing and changing so fast
He smiles a lot now - and is just so cute

Ok I am going o/t for just a moment cause I am soo proud

Brin got her final results,she has been studying at uni for a degree in International Media

she received 3 high distinctions and 2 dstinctions in her final year.I am soooooooooooooooooooooo proud.

Congrats to you and your daughter, AM.

Hooray for Briony! That is great
I know you are so proud , AM

I totally agree about the YEC final match should be Best-of-5. I was totally ticked when they changed it. All the TMS used to be Best-of-5 finals, but the Rome masterpiece between Fed and Rafa changed that. I think IW and Miami remained Best-of-5 for one more year, but then they too changed. But the YEC is just that - the championship! And this tourney is supposed to be up there with a GS - the final should be Best-of-5.

Thanks guys she topped her class at uni,though she dosent get her cap etc until next year.

She says Yipee no more study I have been at school forever

yes the poor old thing is 23 lol!

It is incredible how Bodo manages to make an interesting subject SOOOO BOOOOOOOORING!

As you say, Pete.... Fed is a LONG WAY OFF from being in a comparable position to Sampras (when he was getting hounded about retirement). But honestly, can you blame the press? Sampras hadn't won a title in 2 years and, like you say, he went out very early in the two previous majors prior to his final GS title.

Fed is on a 22-consecutive-semi-finals-at-GS streak. And he's been in the last 17 of 18 GS finals! Anyone who honestly thinks the guy should retire is smoking something. He's 5-7 years older than the rest of the Top 5 yet HE'S THE ONE who was in every GS final this year.

Obviously I would love to see Fed play well this week, secure the YE#1 and hopefully win the title... but like you also say, he has absolutely nothing to prove to anyone. Beat Muzza? Yeah, it would be nice, sure. But he doesn't need to beat Muzza or anyone else.

I found your "and those fires are going to be ignited every time he plays a tournament and fails to win it" statement interesting but hardly surprising. Fed is expected to win every tournament he plays. Even now. I can't think of any other top player who has ever had to live with that kind of expectation...ever. Including Mr. Sampras.

This tournament is so tough to pick as the field is so levelized. No pesky early rounds to wear out the likes of Murray and Djokovic, no random big hitters or bogey players to negotiate before facing the top players. You just have to be bang on form from beginning to end.

It's so unfortunate they went to Best of 3 Finals. This tournament should be a Quasi-Major, bigger than anything except the Grand Slams. Previously it was the only event besides Grand Slams and Davis Cup with a 3-of-5 format. Now they've reduced it to rinky-dink 2-of-3 Masters finals level. By doing this they've sacrificed some of the status and prestige of this championship.

If anything, they should have moved the other way. 2 of 3 matches are fine for RR, but BOTH the semifinals and Final should be 3 of 5, with a day off in between when they could play the Doubles. Too bad. Some "championship".

Congrats to you and your daughter, AM. Great achievement for Briony!

Well this is the cream of the cream so to speak

The top eight players in a round robin play off

Regardless of injury and strugglind to find form with some of the players

No doubt each player will give their best

This is their final show down.

*waves hello*

Driving by to say YAY Briony!

and, thoughtful post, Pete. :)

Thanks Sokol,also sorry about Russia in the world cup play offs.

Surprised no one has pointed this out yet...

*Sampras came into that match having been to just two finals since July of 2000, and he didn't win either of them*

Sampras made 6 ATP finals between July 2000 and US Open F 2002 (I assume that is what Pete means by "that match") (US Open 2000, Indian Wells 2001, Los Angeles 2001, Long Island 2001, US Open 2001, US Open 2001, Houston 2002). He didn't win any of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Sampras_career_statistics

@master ace

We don't know yet who is playing who on tuesday. The Sunday winners will play each other on Tuesday.It is the samething for the doubles. For example: If Murray wins, he will play the winner of Federer/Verdasco on tuesday. That's what they did the last few years

Even though I prefer Best-of-5 matches period, I totally understand what every tournament can't be that. And obviously for tourneys where the guys every day, Best-of-5 is asking alot. But I still wish the schedule could change to allow a Best-of-5 final in all TMS. You can do that for IW and Miami. But you can't do that between Canada and Cincy. And because the clay-to-grass stretch is already condensed... I get why they had to change the Rome final after what happened in 2006 with Fed and Rafa.

BUT, there is absolutely no reason why the YEC final cannot be Best-of-5. It absolutely should be. For all we know, it probably had to do with TV rights and such. Obviously in a Best-of-5 deal, there is no way for the broadcasters to have any idea how long the match might actually go.

VC, I think Pete meant Slam finals.

Yay, AM. Those are fabulous results.

Hey, Aussiemarg,

Many congratulations to Briony. Take a bow for having such a clever 'little one.'

"where the guys every day".... meant "where the guys PLAY every day"

OMess,
I re-thought about the schedule from Tuesday to Friday and will put a caveat subject to change. Thanks.

Just back home and on my way out for a boring business dinner.

AM,

Congratulations on Briony's achievement!. These are the occassions a mother lives for :).

Counting the days until Sunday....

AM; great news about Briony! Congratulations to her! and to you :)

And the point is to win sets at the YEC. If you are going to lose a match, lose it in three, not two sets.

greenhopper : I considered that, yes, I suppose that's what he meant considering Sampras was basically focusing on Slams towards the end.

Thanks guys

She gets her brains from her dad,she gets her looks from my side of the family lol!

From a twitter not too long ago:

nicklester: back from an afternoon at queens,federer looking his usual self hitting with soderling for an hour,Djokovic and Del Potro on the next court.

Aussiemarg,
Congratulations on Briony's achievements.

Conflagration? He's already covered in smoke.

What did Briony do?
Congrats!

Thanks MA.

thanks, AM, I guess it was not to be... maybe next time, too bad eill have to wait another 4 years... at least I can enjoy the Worls Cup without frazzling now :-)

This 2-of-3 match formatting is like a spreading disease in Men's tennis. First they reduced and cheapened the Masters Finals. Then last year Tour Final (Masters Cup or whatever) eliminated 3-of-5 matches when they should have INCREASED them to the semifinals.

I've heard rumblings for several years from some misguided persons (including some journalists) that the early round matches in Grand Slams should be reduced to 2-of-3. This would be the penultimate travesty. I think the pre-1973 Australian Open had this rinky-dink format, at least for awhile.

Has anyone else heard recent suggestions of this horrible idea, or know anything about how serious it might become in the coming years?

"eill"="will"

Oh, I read back, AM. Congrats on your daughter's hard work and distinctions earned. When is graduation in Australia?

Did anyone heard about Serena? Have they reached a decision? I thought they said they'll announce the decision in 2 weeks, how long have it been since then?

"Did anyone heard"="Did anyone her" of course *shakes head*

"Did anyone her"="Did anyone hear"

"but he (Murray) won their four previous meetings, including a 7-5 in-the-third battle at the last YEC. Federer is coming into the match trailing a ... a surprising second-round collapse against Julien Benneteau in Paris."

Last year YEC ... We now know that Federer had back problems and still he was able to paly a very close match against Murray. And nowhere did I read that the loss to Benneteau was a collapse; it was just that JB played the match of his life. Things happen.

We will see, no:-)

Vie Thanks,not until May I think next year.Though she is going over seas.I told her she has to be back in time.She could have done a post grad degree for a year but what they were offering she felt it would not really help her.

I had thought too that WTF should be 5-set, considering the points involved (which I think is too much). But then, it is end of long season, so it is appropriate that they should be winding down and not be put to the grease mill (is that right). They are working overtime already.

Tigress, I had heard some journalists talk about making early round GS matches be Best-of-3 sets for men, but I don't think that will EVER happen. Personally I would love to see the womens final be Best-of-5 sets in a GS.

Sokol,
No word on Serena from the ITF and it has been almost 2 weeks since she won Doha. She is scheduled to play an exo against Caroline in Barbados next week(forgot date).

"I've heard rumblings for several years from some misguided persons (including some journalists) that the early round matches in Grand Slams should be reduced to 2-of-3. "

Tigress,
Heard that also briefly and if they did that, it would cheapen the Slams for the ATP as they have eliminated best of 5 finals in all ATP tournaments that was started after the 2006 Rome final b/w a Spainard and a Swiss and one of EdV, ATP President at that time, objectives that may came from listening to the players. ATP SF and F in TMC needs to be 5 sets and all 8 mandatory Masters(Monte Carlo is a 500 event in this scheme despite giving pts on the 1000 pt scale) F needs to be 5 sets. Reason I say Masters F needs to be 5 set is the top players get byes into the next round if they are in consecutive weeks(like Canada/Cincinnati).

With a day off in between, it would make a lot of sense to get rid of the no-ad and match tie-break scoring systems as well. But then am sure they put a lot of thought into naming this event "WTF".

thanks, MA

Alexis,
I can definitely go for the WTA playing a best of 5 in a Slam final as they did years ago in their season ending championships for a while. This may force some WTA players to work a little more on fitness and their overall game.

Aussie Marg, wonderful! Isn't it great to have children to be proud of?

I think some others are cranky today so I'm going to wander away again.

Greenhopper,
On the doubles scoring, I prefer the normal way of scoring but they did not ask you or me. Now, doubles needs to change their scoring in the offseason. Here is my proposal if it is not the normal way of scoring:

(a) Either have no-ad scoring but eliminate the supertiebreak
or
(b) Either have a supertiebreak but eliminate the no-ad scoring.

adciecream Yes it is,though as parents regardless of what our kids achieve in their lives,I think the most important thing is for them to be happy in whatever they choose to do.

There has always been grumblings towards the woman in a way that they dont play for the best of 5,cause the prize money has been increased especially where the Slams are concerned.I would like to see firstly in Slams the woman play best of 5 sets.I know people are going to whinge theat womans tennis is boring,though it might shut up many who dont agree with the prize money woman receive in the slams

Thank goodness for Billie Jean King!!!.

AM, what qualities your daughter must have to choose international and media. That's quite a scope. She seems also lucky with parents who supported her.

Ferrero named reserve for Spain in Davis Cup final against Czech Republic
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gzBwX3p46X2FJLrCGUkovgPeVLZw

Vie Thanks,I think all parents support their kids in whatever they do in their lives.

That sounds good, MA. Their only purpose in introducing this system seems to be so the doubles guys would clear the field soon for singles, and possibly accomodate during unfortunate weather interruptions. Having both looks to me like a bit of an over kill.

They could also do a trial based streaming of these matches on tennistv, where we'd pay separetely for doubles. I know I'd pay, and am sure the MS tournies will get a few others to sign up.

AM, sure. I was just expressing my delight at seeing the obvious evidence you presented.

Serena said she is open for best of 5 for the women. But that could just be arrogance/confidence talking.

I think the 2/3 format is disappointing because any player can get hot, or not get warm at all, and before you know it, the match is over.

Or you have players like Murray (Oh, how I love murray lol) that will play around for 2 sets forcing you into error, and beat you.
Murray will not be beating top players in 3/5 sets hitting running passing shots, and waiting for the other person to miss.

From memory, I don't think women have played best-of-five since the Virginia Slims tournament, and it's not clear to me that many of today's players would survive the experience. (Or many of the fans, for that matter.)

Wouldn't be a problem, except for the quite wrong-headed decision to equalize prize money. Since the surplus from majors goes to the national tennis federations, that money should be going to women's tennis development, not into the pockets of players who are putting in fewer hours at the office than the men.

Equal pay, for equal work!

Favourite #1 = Murray

Novak cannot be the favourite for obvious reasons: Murray plays at home, and Novak has too high mileage for the last couple of months. Also, Murray was in great form, just unlucky with scheduling, so he lost to in-form Stepanek.

I'm afraid that I would be very worried about injuries to the players if the Masters play 5 sets. Things have been bad enough towards the end of this year as it is.

Marat Safin is one of the candidates for vice-president of Olympic Committe of Russia, Taprishev said yesterday in the interview and he's pretty confident about his chances :-)... The election will happen December 17 (maybe that's why Tarpi kept saying that we'll find out in December what Marat is going to do next)

hard to imagine Marat doing some "serious" (organized) work like that :-) maybe they just want to use him as a face of Russian sport...

I'm not sure how true it is, I read it on one of the forums from a person who watched Shamil's interview...

"I know people are going to whinge theat womans tennis is boring,though it might shut up many who dont agree with the prize money woman receive in the slams"

Aussiemarg,
Yes, that would quiet the critics on the equal prize money for the winner if they play best of 5 final. Some best of 5 ATP matches can be boring at times. As I posted earlier, a best of 5 Slam final would make players work on their fitness as we see lot of players asking for a MTO and they are playing best of 3 sets AND they can work on other aspects of their games. Many posters commented that a player can get hot for 2 sets.

I have no problem with the men playing 2/3 in MS, particularly, as Lynne says, when you consider the injury issue. But I agree with Tigress that the semis and finals of the YEC should be 3/5. It is the official end of the season, after all. I suspect pressure from the television people has something to do with the move to the shorter format.

Arbiter: I think its silly to credit Murrays loss to Stepanek as a scheduling problem.
He almost lost to James Blake the night before, and honestly, should have if Blake didn't miss a key forehand in the 3rd set tiebreak....

I would credit that loss more to the fact that Blake had him running all over. As did Stepanek. You can't win every match by simply running around like a dog, especially on back to back days.

OMG IM FED UP WITH YOUR FEDERER LOVE STORIES BODO!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAA

Poor Pete, he can't seem to please anyone these days. I think he does a fine job and I'm not impressed when some see fit to shout at him.

MasterAce
The schedule you posted, thank you.
Is the time EST for all?

Guys
Stop hollerin'
KAD or otherwise, here is a guy who was in 4 GS finals and won 2 this year. The TMF. And he is been doing that, more or less, for 6 years now. Non stop.

And if a tennis writer doesn't deal with this, celebrate this...what else one's supposed to do? Write about Tommy Haas' impending engagement?

To be fair, Pete wrote about Nole, DP and Rafa, heck, even about Davy but there's only so much one can do when everyone is amidst this phenomenon called Federer. Homages done 20 years from now (read Borg or Poncho) don't add up guys. It is the here and now. Besides, this is the internet era!