WTF: By the Skin of his Teeth - No, Really

(Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images)

del Potro d. Federer 6-2, 6-7, 6-3

I’m going to keep this one short because, well, I’m tired.

Ashamed to admit it, but there it is. That’s what following this crazy sport, and then having the audacity to write something about it does to you.

There’ll be no commentary here today.

Just to give you the breakdown, if Fed had gone out in straights today – which he came within two points of doing – Murray and Delpo would have gone through to the semis.

We all know that didn’t happen. Once Fed won that second set, he was going to qualify no matter what.

For Juan to qualify, he now needed not only to win the match, but not to drop more than three games of that final set in doing so; which to further saturate my already adrenalin-saturated system, turned out to be exactly the number of games Delpo lost in winning that final set, and with it the match.

(Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images)

His second consecutive win over Fed - I might add.

We’ll leave where this win fits into the grand scheme of things for another day. Let me just say for now that I don’t find it at all remarkable that whilst the tide appears to be turning in Fed’s favour in the H2H situation he has with Murray, it also appears to be showing signs of drift in Juan’s general direction with him now being 2-6 against Fed.

Probably too early to say any more than that. But worth noting that the two wins he’s scored are at a Slam, and the next most prestigous event on the calendar.

Just to further clarify how close for comfort this all was, if Murray had won even a single further game in his total tally, it would be him and not Delpo gracing the O2 Arena on Saturday.

It doesn’t get any more nerve shredding than that.

And just for extra effect, and other perverse reasons known only to themselves, the ATP supervisors at the event spent nearly twenty further minutes after the players had shook hands, calculating what the broadcasters, the assembled media and tennis anoraks worldwide had already figured out for themselves: that Delpo had pipped Murray by an apple pip.

(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Ah well at least we got to see Carlos Tevez shanking three balls out of the court before engaging in a more elegant and adept form of tomfoolery.