Fans who attended the ATP World Tour Finals at O2 Arena will receive a 60% ticket refund after the event was "left without a final following Roger Federer's late withdrawal," according to Vicki Hodges of the London TELEGRAPH. Federer was “forced to pull out of Sunday's showdown with Novak Djokovic because of a back injury and Andy Murray stepped in at the eleventh hour” for an exhibition match. Murray then teamed up with John McEnroe and faced Tim Henman and Pat Cash in a doubles match to “put on some entertainment for the expectant crowd.” Fans “had paid up to” US$172 for their seats at the tournament (London TELEGRAPH, 11/19). TENNIS.com’s Steve Tignor asked, “Should the 2014 WTFs forever be known as the WTE instead? As in: Worst. Tournament. Ever.?” From its “soporific start to its nonexistent finish to its unhappy aftermath," the event was "a week-long shipwreck.” The round-robin was “a continual disappointment to the fans.” Tignor: “Of the 12 round-robin matches, only two went to three sets. Of the 26 sets played, 19 were 6-3 or worse. More than half of the matches were over in 75 minutes or less.” That is “especially disastrous at an event where fans get just one singles match for their ticket." Yet those fans “came in record numbers.” Federer said that the courts were “too slow for the players to put together appealing, attacking points” (TENNIS.com, 11/17).
