ATP World Tour Finals, Day 4 Preview: Federer-Gasquet and Djokovic-del Potro

David Ferrer against Tomas Berdych still coming up tonight, but I thought would post my preview for Thursday since it's ready...

1. Roger Federer v Richard Gasquet (Group B)

Richard Gasquet

I haven't had the fortune of watching Roger Federer's match with Novak Djokovic, but the general consensus I have read is that there were moments of genius from Federer, but he was too inconsistent to draw out the win against a more solid, Djokovic.  The Serb lost the second set, but came through the decider strongly to post a 6-4 6-7(2) 6-2 victory against the Fed.  Federer now plays Richard Gasquet, who gave a fine account of himself in a tight three set loss to Juan Martin del Potro, which has been the best match of the tournament so far.  Federer leads the head-to-head by 10 wins to 2 with both Gasquet wins coming on clay.  The last 2 times they have played have seen comfortable straight set wins for the Fed.  I think this will be a tight match though and if Gasquet can be aggressive and display the variety he showed against DelPo, I think this will be an extremely challenging match for Federer.

Prediction - Federer to beat Gasquet in 3 sets

2. Novak Djokovic v Juan Martin del Potro (Group B)

Juan Martin del Potro

The match that was top of my list from the group stage was this one between Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro so it's understandable I am a bit gutted that being the evening match, I won't be able to watch it :-( Djokovic came through against Federer, but was far from his best, meanwhile Del Potro was also struggling against Gasquet, but improved as their match went on.  Del Potro was consistently improving match-on-match at the O2 last year and I expect to see a similar progression from him this year.  He has had two valuable days off, which I think will work in his favour later in the week.  

Djokovic leads the head-to-head by 10 wins to 3 with victories in their last 2 matches.  The last three matches they have played in Shanghai, Wimbledon and Indian Wells have all been fantastic encounters and propelled this match to be one of the most exciting rivalries on tour, in my opinion the best right now.  I think Djokovic will win this match, but I do believe they could play again where I anticipate things to be tighter.  Still, this should be a great spectacle for the O2 crowd.  If you've got tickets... Enjoy!

Prediction - Djokovic to beat del Potro in 3 sets