Author: By Paul Newman at the 02 Arena

Two players went through to the semi-finals from both four-man sections in the
round-robin phase of the tournament and Group B finished last night in much
the same way as Group A had 24 hours earlier. Djokovic’s 7-6, 6-3 victory
over Nadal and Davydenko’s 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 win against Soderling left three of
the four men on two victories apiece, with Djokovic losing out as the player
with the lowest percentage of sets won.

Nadal had already been the first to be eliminated after losing his first two
matches in straight sets. Yesterday’s defeat was his fourth in a row ? the
last time the Spaniard had such a bad run was in 2004, when he was just 17 ?
and his eighth match in succession against a top eight player in which he
has failed even to win a set.

Davydenko, the runner-up last year, has lost all 12 of his matches against
Federer. The other semi-final is more evenly matched, with Del Potro and
Soderling having won one match each.

After the shambolic scenes on Thursday night, when players and spectators
waited long after the final match to learn who had qualified from Group A,
tournament organisers promised yesterday to review their procedures before
the event returns here next year.

The delay occurred after Federer, Del Potro and Andy Murray finished level on
matches and sets won and had to be separated by a countback on the
percentage of games won in their round-robin matches. Federer and Del Potro
qualified for the semi-finals as Murray went out by the tiniest of margins,
his win-loss record in games standing at 44-43 compared with Del Potro’s
tally of 45-43.

Brad Drewett, the tournament director, agreed that improvements in
communications needed to be made before next year, but said he did not
regard what had happened as an embarrassment. He said that proper procedures
had been followed and that the delay had been caused by the tournament
supervisor having to be on the court during the match and then having to
ratify the final table.

Murray’s failure to reach the semi-finals could cost him his place at No 4 in
the world rankings. Del Potro has been closing on the Scot in recent weeks
and would overhaul him if he were to win here.

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