Daily Dispatch: Quick Hits from the World Tour Finals

World No. 7 Juan Martin del Potro earned his second win of the year against Roger Federer today to qualify for the World Tour Finals semis, dropping a grand total of two points on serve in the deciding set.

With that result, he brings his win total against the Big Four to three wins in 2012 (two vs. Federer, one vs. Djokovic at the Olympics.) In comparison, this year against the Big Four, Tomas Berdych had two wins, David Ferrer one, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga zero.

Win-loss total in 2012: Djokovic: 73-12, Federer: 70-11, Murray: 56-15, Ferrer: 74-15, del Potro: 65-16.

Just three players have managed to beat Federer twice this year. Del Potro, Djokovic, and Murray all picked up a pair of wins against the World No. 2.

Tomorrow’s semifinals in London feature all the participating players who have won Grand Slams. Not a bad line-up, even though the round robin matches were dreadfully uneventful.

As for del Potro, he now has a chance to overtake Tomas Berdych to become World No. 6 if he wins his semifinal match against Djokovic.

Over at The Changeover, Lindsay Gibbs explored the many hairstyles of Rafael Nadal. Also over there, we debated the format of the World Tour Finals, and whether it needs to be changed.

Tweets of the Day:

Del Potro on joining Djokovic, Federer and Murray in the semis: “The semis has three big names and one big guy.”

— Craig Gabriel (@crosscourt1) November 10, 2012

You have a big name too, DelPo.Like, literally. It has more letters in it than the other names.

— Joanna (@Janie5Jones) November 10, 2012