Getting Ready

Saturday, November 21, 2009

So, Andy gets his World Tour Finals campaign underway on Sunday with a match against Juan Martin Del Potro in Group A – the first singles match of the tournament. For UK viewers, it’s live on BBC2 from 14:30.

The guys themselves have spent the last two days based out of the tournament hotel in central London, traveling to the 02 by boat.

And the speedboat kind of sets the tone for the Finals, because the tournament site is spectacular.

Each player has his own changing room in a backstage area normally inhabited by the likes of Beyonce, and the player lounge – with a balcony that dominates one end of the arena – is amazing.

Michael McIntyre (British comic) only moved out of the building on the Tuesday, the ATP have had to move quickly to get everything ready on time.

And the view from the player lounge balcony suggests that all the hard work has paid off.

We haven’t seen many tennis venues that look better. The two little dots on the court are Andy and Novak Djokovic who hit for an hour on the Friday.

Courts are at a premium on site, so players have had an hour on the main court, before heading outside to the other practice court. A steady stream of people heading to the 02 cinema found themselves doing double-takes.

Practice on the main court today was pretty impressive: Del Potro, followed by Andy, followed by Rafa and Federer. It’s not often you see the last two hit together.

For Andy, practice was with Robin Soderling. Journey to the court was by speedboat again.

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