Day two of my visit at the O2 was a big, big and exciting day and I had a good reason for that. Wait for it, I will share it soon.

Bopanna/Mergea vs Murray/Peers

The day started with Florin’s match against Murray/Peers. Bopanna/Mergea are at their first presence as a team at the World Tour Finals, Bopanna has played here before but for Florin this is the first time. And what a first time it has been. They were playing against the crowd’s favourites (Jamie Murray is Andy’s brother). Somehow the outcome of this match was predictable. Qualifying as the 8th team just a week before the tournament started, Rohan and Florin seem to enjoy their presence at the O2 a lot. And I enjoyed seeing them play. They won 6-3, 7-6 (5) and qualified for the semifinals after just two matches and as the number one team in their group.

Berdych vs Nishikori

The second match of the day was Berdych vs Nishikori. I like Tomas, he’s one of my favourite players, three times winner of Stockholm Open, been there to see him win twice but this match was just… I have no words to describe it. Except the second set that proved to be a bit more spectacular and exciting, the rest was so… well, I wouldn’t say boring but you expect some different kind of tennis when you have the first 8 players of the World in front of your eyes. I guess this happened because it’s been a long tournament calendar this year and most players are really tired. Even so, sitting in my seat, drinking coffee and just listening to the silence of the tennis hall was worth enjoying the moment.

Bryan/Bryan vs Bolelli/Fognini

After the break my excitement was getting out of proportions but I still had to wait. I saw another doubles match: The Bryan Brothers vs Bolelli/Fognini. The Italians are old friends of mine meaning that I’ve seen them before in Bucharest. They won the doubles crown at Australian Open this year which led them on the draw for the year end tournament. But this time my thoughts were: what are these guys doing here? Now, doubles tennis is different from the singles. It’s faster, more exciting, it demands a lot of communication between the partners, a lot of instinct and trust in each other. And it’s way more spectacular, that is why I like to watch it, thought it is not that popular (people don’t know what they’re missing). The Bryans dominated the game and got it over with fast with a 6-3, 6-2 score.

Federer vs Djokovic

After this my excitement was unbelievable. I was about to receive the best birthday present  ever and even now I can’t believe that I actually saw Federer playing against Djokovic on my birthday. What more could I ask for? I mean this is the duel of the moment in tennis. I have seen so many matches between these two guys on TV and most of them have been breathtaking so I was expecting the same. And I got what I wanted. Compared to all of the other players and all of the other matches these guys played unbelievable, it’s like they were out of this world, unreal. And the atmosphere in the venue was astonishing though it was more than obvious that nearly everybody was on Roger’s side (no wonder he won the fan’s favourite award, again). The match ended too fast, it was too short, I wanted more. This match was an example of tennis art. And of course it was this amazing because Federer won. Did I tell you that watching him was one of the reasons why I am so excited about attending this tournament? Yup, I did. What an amazing end of a day!

This was supposed to be the final day of tennis but because we couldn’t get enough and because there were still tickets for the next day, we treated ourselves with some really good tickets for another evening of tennis.

Rojer/Tecau vs Dodig/Melo

On the last day we only attended the evening session motivated by the fact that Horia and Juls were playing in the doubles match and Ferrer and Wawrinka held the spotlight for the evening’s singles game. Tecau/Rojer took on Dodig/Melo in a beautiful display of doubles tennis. Melo is the World number one in doubles but as a team, together with Ivan Dodig, they are the third. Horia and Juls are the second team in the world and the Wimbledon champions. They had breaks from early in both sets but, after winning the first one, they lost their advantage in the second and the match was pushed into a tiebreak. This made things quite exciting as in a tiebreak anything can happen and a doubles match can be very easily turned around. Luckily they played really well and ended the match 6-4, 7-6 (3) which brought them an early qualification to the semifinals.

Wawrinka vs Ferrer

The last match for this year at the O2, and I say this year because I sure hope I come again one day, was Ferrer vs Wawrinka. The Spanish tennis player had an early advantage in the first set but he lost it and from then on it was all down the hill for him.

Happy me

Both players hit really hard from the back of the court and Wawrinka was the one who managed to change the pace and turn the game in his favour more often than David. The Spaniard bowed after a 7-5, 6-2 result.

And with theses being said and these matches being played I looked around at the arena and just said: see you next time, maybe next year. What a treat it is to watch the best of the best play right in front of you!