Get ready for tennis’s pyrotechnic ‘Showdown at O2 Corral’

GUY Fawkes has come and gone yet we’ve reached the grand crescendo of an explosive year in men’s tennis, where only the world’s top eight players qualify to play in the ATP World Tour Finals in London.

What makes this such a landmark event is that no Americans, Australians – the dominant nations during my era – or continental Europeans (with the exception of Swiss pair Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka) even feature. And a handful of the “usual suspects” – Rafael Nadal, Grigor Dimitrov, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils, David Ferrer – have gone awol, usurped by a fierce pack of eastern Europeans.

For me, the most thrilling aspect of the tournament is not so much that we’ve witnessed the emergence of a major Asian player in Kei Nishikori or that Croatian Marin Cilic has finally broken the barrier by bagging a Grand Slam title (be it a flukey one), but that Federer – whom I have long championed, against the tide of opinion that his best days are over – has rediscovered his winning streak to stand on the brink of regaining pole position. His slice backhand is back, his truer ranking and will to win are back and, above all, he has become a predator at net, attacking as relentlessly as a great white smelling chummed water.

Even world No 1 Djokovic is looking over his shoulder, saying: Forget the unforgettable Wimbledon final, Federer played the best tennis he has seen him play a month ago in Shanghai, where the Swiss maestro smashed the Serb to chalk up another win.

This is probably why the popularity of tennis in China and India is rocketing, to the extent that Indian doubles player Mahesh Bhupathi has cleverly hijacked the Indian Premier League idea. The tennis equivalent will be launched next month amid big bucks, big razzmatazz and big names, old and new. The O2 Arena is in for a few fireworks of its own. While Federer has been a joy to watch, Wawrinka has been a big disappointment after so brilliantly outplaying Nadal in the Australian Open final. The pressure to repeat that performance, coupled with Federer’s resurgence, has obviously been too much for the Swiss No 2. He now has bad nerves at closing stages – which wipes crucial firstserve advantage opportunities off the score sheet, as we saw in Paris, where he broke Kevin Anderson’s serve and then unravelled serving for a match. With his experience, he should not have lost to the South African. The “Stanimal” needs to get hold of a sports psychologist – or José Mourinho – to install a Teflon hide on this shadow of his former self. To make matters worse, he is in the same half of the draw as Djokovic and Cilic, who, with his King Kong service action, will be scarier than Halloween.

As for Andy Murray, in the wake of a patchy year, he and his Scottish Independence have taken some knocks, not least on the subject of coach Amelie Mauresmo. Yet he has clawed his way back, as he so often does, to sneak into the top eight, conveniently not on Djokovic’s side of the draw.

While Murray may be a thorn in the racket of missile-serving Milos Raonic, because the Scot has such a great return of serve, he is not in the league of the two top seeds.

However, he can take comfort that he can perform no worse than his mother did in Strictly Come Dancing.

We have been robbed of watching entertaining Bulgarian Dimitrov, who, like golf No 1 McIlroy before him, has been distracted by a long-legged, exNo 1 in a short skirt (Maria Sharapova).

Dimitrov is definitely a more complete player than Cilic or Nishikori. The Japanese is the Asian version of a Ferrer, running brilliantly from side to side but not really penetrating, while US Open champ Cilic, with his ball-busting serve, reminds me of former US Open champ Andy Roddick – they are red hot or stone cold, depending on how that service weapon is unleashed – and the jury is still out on Cilic’s US victory.

Raonic, on the other hand, has become a real threat, being a more natural volleyer, as King of Volleyers Federer discovered in Paris.

The volley may be the only chink in the armour of Novak Djokovic, who has had more early Christmas gifts than most – a wife, a son and a Wimbledon title.

However, he has been the slowest of these top eight to realise the advantage of net-rushing – and herein lies Federer’s chance to pocket the biggest Christmas present of the year.