The 2018 ATP Tour season is almost at end and there are just to events to complete. The ATP Tour year-end finals played indoors at the O2 Arena, London commences today, and it involves the worlds current top-eight players who qualified for the event. The final tournament of the year is the 2018 Davis Cup final between France and Croatia played on clay indoors in France.
The 2018 ATP Tour finals will sadly be missing Nadal and Murray due to injury and hopefully both will be back next season fit and healthy. The tournament has been dominated by new world number one and top-seed Djokovic over the last decade and he’s won five titles between 2008 and 2017. Second seed and world number three Federer won it twice (2010 & 2011) and Murray and Dimitrov won the other two finals in 2016 and 2017. The tournament is played in a group round robin format and the winner and runner-up both progress to the semi-final knockout stage.
Djokovic, third seed Sascha Zverev, fifth seed Cilic and eighth seed Isner make up the Kuerten Group and Federer, fourth seed Anderson, sixth seed Thiem and seventh seed Nishikori make up the Hewitt Group. Djokovic is understandably the hot odds on favorite to win the tournament given his record at the event and it’s hard to look past him winning a sixth title as he’s been in scintillating form since winning Wimbledon in the summer.
The Kuerten Group runner up place is between Zverev, Cilic and Isner and it should be between Zverev and Cilic as Isner was ill and/or injured at the Paris Masters 1000 Series recently and he doesn’t have a great career record indoors overall. While he’s not been in great form over the last few months, Zverev could finish runner up as Cilic may want to conserve his energy for the Davis Cup, which starts the day after this tournament finishes on Sunday.
Veteran Federer is of course second favorite to win the title and hot favorite to win the Hewitt Group. The 37-year-old should be able to mount a serious challenge after a quiet season if he’s fit and healthy and in terms of the runner up I think Nishikori has a great chance as he’s got a great head-to-head record against Thiem (3-0) and Anderson (7-3).
W e could be on for a heavyweight blockbuster final on Sunday between Djokovic and Federer, and this is certainly what the fans and event organizers will be hoping for. While I won’t be advising it officially I wouldn’t put anyone of backing them in the ‘Name the Finalist’market (6/4). Nishikori (25/1) could also be worth an each way nibble if you are looking for a bet in the outright winner market.
Selections:
None.
