TENNIS in DEPTH.

Tomas Berdych claimed his first ever win at the ATP Tour World Finals and left Andy Roddick’s hopes of reaching the last four in tatters with a 7-5 6-3 win over the American at the O2 Arena. Both men needed a victory after losing their opening matches and, having saved a pair of set points in set one, Berdych found the form which took him to the Wimbledon final and closed out the match impressively. The duo are powerful servers and no breaks looked likely until Berdych found himself 15-40 down at 4-5. However, aggressive play from the sixth seed saved the set points and he completed his escape with a fantastic half-volley. Duly inspired, he fought back from 40-15 down in the next game, earned a break point, and converted it by swatting a second serve into the corner for a forehand winner. Berdych served out the set without any alarms and then broke again in the fifth game of set two when Roddick put an awkward smash millimetres wide, shortly after complaining about the flashing advertisements behind the line judges.

His Czech opponent’s dangerous forehand was now producing a steady stream of winners and Berdych went 5-3 up before a beautiful backhand winner helped him to a 40-15 lead on the Roddick serve. The disconsolate American then found the net from the baseline and is now rock-bottom of the Group A standings. Berdych is playing at the elite event for the first time and said: “I started this week nervously but today I started to play much better. “I’m playing for the first time this kind of system, with the groups. There’s still a chance (of reaching the semi-finals) and now it’s down to myself and my next opponent (Rafael Nadal).”

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Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski kept Group A wide open at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals on Tuesday, when they saved three match points against World No. 1 team Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan in a 6-2, 6-7(4), 10-8 victory. The 32-year-old Bryan twins could have qualified for the semi-finals if they had won after Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner had denied Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes their first win earlier in the day. Fyrstenberg and Matkowski came alive in the nick of time towards the end of the second set, fighting back for a famous win in one hour and 38 minutes that snapped a three-match losing streak against the Bryans.

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Ana is on the cover of the new issue Australian Tennis Magazine. The 23-year-old is the subject of a feature entitled “Remodelling a champion” by journalist Barry Wood.

After a baffling two years in which she struggled to string consecutive wins together, former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic looks set to return to top form in time for the Australian summer. She’s back, and it’s great to see. Ana Ivanovic, who ranks alongside Kim Clijsters as the most popular player on the WTA tour, has, it seems, put more than two years of a baffling mediocrity behind her and she is once again notching up the victories. She ended this season by winning 10 of her last 11 matches, claiming titles in Linz and Bali – an impressive turnaround by a player who, two years after winning the French Open and ascending to world No. 1, had seen her ranking sink to 65. She was, it seemed, going nowhere. There were the occasional decent tournaments, such as Brisbane, Rome and Cincinnati this year where she reached the semi-finals, but there were far more events where her results were disappointing.

Her decline was particularly painful to witness, because she is universally liked for her always-present smile and the same down-to-earth personality she had when she announced her arrival as a 16 year old back in 2004. It was then that, ranked 156, she qualified in Zurich and upset world No. 29 Tatiana Golovin by fighting back from 1-5 in the final set, saving match points, and then stretched Venus Williams by holding five set points in the opening set and three in the second before conceding in two tiebreaks. Eyebrows were raised and a star was born. With her model girl looks, as well as spectacular on-court talent, she went on to become one of the pin-ups of the game, and with her 2008 victory at Roland Garros the world was at her feet. But then, unexpectedly, the results stopped coming. At the US Open that year she lost to an opponent ranked 188, and although she won Linz a few weeks later she suffered an increasing number of early defeats. The worst moment, she says, came at the 2009 US Open when she fell to Kateryna Bondarenko. “It was the first time I had lost in the first round of a Grand Slam, and also I had a match point,” she said. “In my career, usually I was the one saving match points and going on to win. It was a very unpleasant experience, not using my opportunity. It took me a while to get over that one.”

 So what had gone wrong? “I got to number one and I thought, ‘This is great and I have to play even better to improve’, and I started changing my technique and the way I was working,” she said. “Obviously I was doing something right (to win Roland Garros and get to world No. 1) but I felt I could still improve. I got very motivated and excited and wanted to get better and improve those few little things. I thought I could get my volleys a little bit better, my serve more powerful, and you get consumed by that and I got carried away a little bit. “It wasn’t good because I had a certain rhythm and I lost that, and then a few injuries crept in and then you lose matches you expect to win. That was hard and I took it very personally and was very hard on myself and brought myself down.”

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Roger Federer once again proved he has Andy Murray’s number when it comes to the big matches with a crushing 6-4 6-2 victory over the home hope at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London. The British number one was bidding for a third consecutive victory over Federer, but it was one-way traffic virtually from the off at the O2 Arena as Murray searched in vain for something like his best form while his opponent gave a masterclass. The world number two had also beaten Murray in the round-robin stage of the eight-man event last year, as well as both times they have met in grand slam finals.

Federer said: “I knew the difficulty of playing Andy, I had my hands full today so I’m surprised how clean the score was. I’m happy I’m playing so well, obviously.” Both players were enthusiastically greeted by the sizeable crowd, which again included Diego Maradona, with Federer receiving if anything a louder cheer than Murray. Murray had come flying out of the traps in his win over Robin Soderling on Sunday, but struggled to find a first serve and had to save a break point in the opening game. Both players have been in good form this autumn but the Scot could draw on memories of recent successes over Federer after beating him in Masters finals in Toronto and Shanghai. Murray had vowed to take the match to the world number two but in the early stages it was all about Federer, who swatted aside his opponent for a break to love in the third game.

The Swiss star was looking supremely confident and lost only one point in his first five service games. At 5-4 it was now or never for Murray and he at last found some form, with a terrific forehand pass taking him to 0-30. But Federer was not about to give up the set and he sealed it when Murray overcooked a forehand. What Murray, and the match, desperately needed was a good start to the second set, but instead a first double fault left him facing two break points. The 23-year-old’s serve came to his rescue briefly but a couple of ill-advised drop shots kept Federer in the game and he claimed a break courtesy of a trademark off forehand that just clipped the top of the net. The crowd had been expecting a much closer match, but the outcome was effectively decided when Murray was broken for a second successive game to trail 3-0. The rally of the match at the start of the fourth game ended with Murray drilling a backhand winner down the line, but Federer was simply playing too well. A dreaded bagel was on the cards when the Scot conceded two more break points in his next game, but this time he managed to fight off Federer and at least get on the scoreboard.

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The Hong Kong Tennis Classic is Hong Kong’s premier tennis event. The 2011 event features 12 stars in 4 teams from all corners of the globe battling it out over 4 action packed days of tennis. January 5-8 at Victoria Park

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Williams has been struggling with a foot injury since mysteriously cutting her foot in Munich back in July, which eventually required her to have surgery to repair a damaged tendon. She was pictured only last week arriving at an NFL game in Miami on crutches, and with her right foot in significant plaster.

 Williams has told organisers she will not be attending the mixed team event because of injury, and they are now scrambling to find a replacement. And it will also put some doubt over Williams’ appearance at the Australian Open just days later. It is the third time Williams has withdrawn from the Perth indoor event, with knee surgery ruling her out of the 2003/2004 event and a hamstring forcing her to pull out of the 2008/2009 version. This time, it is the cuts she sustained when exiting a restaurant in Munich in the middle of the year, which have never fully been explained. Williams initially received 18 stitches, but was then required to undergo more surgery to repair a tendon.

After withdrawing from the US Open, she returned to practice in September, but then put off her comeback by pulling out of tournaments in Tokyo, Beijing and Linz, Austria. On October 10, in a posting on her official website, Serena said she “re-strained” her foot by overtraining and “likely” would be out of the year. “Pushed by my desire to return to competition, I trained too hard too soon and re-tore the tendon in my foot,” Williams said. “As a result, yesterday morning I had to have another procedure to repair it.”

Williams had been set to begin her 2011 season by playing a part in the best ever field assembled for the Hopman Cup alongside Justine Henin, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Ana Ivanovic, Gael Monfils and Lleyton Hewitt. It is unclear whether the US will withdraw from the event altogether, or a replacement will be found for Williams in the American team. An announcement is due from organisers on Tuesday.

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Forget named a squad of Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon, Michael Llodra, Arnaud Clement and Richard Gasquet for the tie on December 3 to 5, though that group will have to be cut down to four by December 2. Gasquet did not feature in the semi-final against Argentina. “I selected four players in Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon, Michael Llodra and Arnaud Clement, but I put Richard Gasquet in the group because for a meeting of this importance it seems essential to prepare five players,” Forget told French sports daily L’Equipe.

In the semi-final, which France won 5-0, the opening singles rubbers were played by Monfils and Llodra, who teamed up with Clement for the doubles. The dead-rubber singles were played by Simon and Clement. In Serbia, France will be going for their 10th title and their first since 2001.

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Rafael Nadal shrugged off early rustiness to record his first victory at London’s O2 Arena on Monday night and bring the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals bursting into life. The world number one had not played for five weeks and it showed early on in his Group A encounter with Andy Roddick, but Nadal recovered impressively to record a 3-6 7-6 (7/5) 6-4 victory. After three one-sided matches, it was just what the tournament needed, and the Spaniard was happy to oblige. “Finally I won a match,” he said. “I started the match a little bit nervously. His serve is always so difficult but I started to play a bit better and this is a very important victory for me.”

The London tournament was not a happy experience for Nadal last year as, after a season dogged by injury, he failed to win a set in his three round-robin matches and left the O2 looking short on confidence and belief. This season, of course, has seen the Spaniard hit the greatest heights of his career, with three grand slam triumphs, including a first title at the US Open.

The Tour Finals is the only major title so far to elude Nadal, and he admitted on Friday that winning it would be harder for him than winning a slam because of the indoor surface it is played on, which does not suit his game. The court is playing slower this year, giving the world number one more of a chance, but it was his serve that let him down early on as two double faults handed Roddick an immediate break. The American is famed for his serve, and he needed all of its power as he survived four break points to hold on to his advantage and take the first set. Nadal was certainly playing better than last year and looked eager and aggressive, but he found himself facing more break points at 1-1 in the second set when Roddick came up with a superb sequence of shots to out-rally the master.

The American sensed his chance and he took it as Nadal chose a surprising moment to come to the net. But Roddick let his opponent off the hook straight away with a poor game, allowing Nadal to level. And that was the way it stayed all the way through to the first tie-break of this year’s singles tournament. Four points in a row for the world number one from 3-2 down proved the key and he duly levelled when Roddick netted a forehand on the third set point. The errors of the first set were gone from the Nadal racquet and he ramped up the pressure at 2-2 in the decider, setting up two break points and then taking the first with a super pass. Roddick had won their last encounter on his way to the Masters title in Miami in the spring but this was Nadal’s night and he made no mistake, serving out for victory.

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