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Del Potro through, Murray out in dramatic end

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Updated Nov 27, 2009 7:16 PM ET
     
 

LONDON

After much confusion and mathematical calculation, Juan Martin del Potro advanced to the semifinals of the ATP World Tour Finals by beating Roger Federer 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3 and, in doing so, eliminated the local favorite Andy Murray. Earlier Murray had defeated Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3) to keep himself in contention, but to be safe he needed Federer to win the night match. Murray could still have made it if Federer had managed to take the third set even one game further before losing because that would have given the Scot a better average of games won and lost than del Potro. Usually these things are decided by sets won and lost if three players end up with 2-1 winning records, but the closeness of this round-robin group had taken things past that. At one time during a day of hastily revised calculations, it seemed that a head-to-head record in this tournament would come into play, but ATP Supervisor Gayle Bradshaw insisted that rule had been discarded some years ago. So percentages of sets won and lost it was and, unhappily for the large, knowledgeable and enthusiastic crowds that have been filling this magnificent O2 Arena to its capacity for each session, Murray's season is over. How many people in the crowd were aware of the unfolding drama when Federer reached break point three times on the Argentine's serve at 3-3 in the third set is impossible to guess, but at least they were rewarded with one of the most entertaining matches of the tournament to date as Federer unleashed all his mercurial talents against the man who had beaten him in the U.S. Open final last September. Del Potro got away to a fast start but Federer, keen to finish top of his group (which he ultimately did despite this defeat) refused to buckle and staged a magnificent fight back from two points to four down in the second-set tiebreak. Taking the attack to his baseline-hugging opponent, Federer scored with two great volleys to win the breaker 7-5 and then, at the start of the third set, produced the play of the tournament so far — a wonderful drop shot, perfect lob and, off del Potro's through-the-legs reply, a winning forehand volley. The Argentine, supported by one of his nation's leading soccer stars — Carlos Tevez, who plays in England for Manchester City — started to waver in the face of all this dazzling talent and two errors put him 15-40 down in the seventh game. Good serving got him out of trouble but, again, Federer pulled off the drop shot-lob combo to reach a third break point. This time a first serve kissed the line with such venom that Federer could not reply and that proved to be that — for Federer in the match and Murray in the tournament. Collapsing just as he had against Rafael Nadal in the closing moments of their great Australian Open final, Federer hit a smash an inch long; double faulted and hit a bad forehand well wide to drop serve in the next game. Holding his nerve, del Potro served out for a well deserved victory. Richard Evans, who commentated at Wimbledon on BBC Radio for 20 years, has been covering tennis since the 1960s and has reported on more than 150 Grand Slams. He is the author of 15 books, including the official history of the Davis Cup and the unofficial history of the modern game in "Open Tennis." He lives in Florida but is still on the tour 20 weeks in the year.

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