This week we have been mainly .....

Watching Tennis :o)

Walking Monday: 9.2km (Thames path O2 to Greenwich)

Walking Tuesday: 2.1km (Canary Wharf)

Walking Wednesday: 4.1km (Greenwich Park)

Walking Friday: 3.8km

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We've been in London for three days at the ATP Worldtour Finals at the O2 Arena, North Greenwich, having got day tickets for Tuesday back in August. We'd planned to fly FlyBE from Rennes to the (rather imaginatively named) London Southend airport on Monday, plans changed slightly when the flight time was brought forwards but, when the draw came out the early flight gave us a chance to get to see Andy Murray on Monday afternoon. So, leaving home at 7.30 in the deepest darkest part of France we live and travelling via car, plane, train and tube we got into our seats at the O2 by midday.

The O2 is a spectacular venue, sitting up in the top tier gives a feeling of being right above the play but, despite the size of the venue it is a remarkably intimate arena for tennis:

Having seen Andy Murray through to a workmanlike 6-4, 6-4 win over David Ferrer we returned on Tuesday afternoon for Berdych/ Nishikori and - what a bargain for the £19 we paid for the seats - Djokovic/ Federer in the evening. The afternoon match was a tight three-set affair, we got a great seat upgrade given to us in the stadium to just behind the baseline:

Tennis at it's most competitive is a gladiatorial type sport, fuelled by the perverse scoring system which sometimes lets players get back from almost impossible positions. The presentation at the O2 builds on this (think loud rock music, light shows, lasers and "Strictly" style floor projection systems) and could not in any way be more different to the genteel atmosphere at the SW19 tournament.

The bars in the O2 had been full of Swiss supporters all day preparing for Roger's evening game. We went into the fan zone before the evening session and saw Richard Gasquet, the reserve player having finished 9th in the rankings, warming up Roger. Significantly for what happened later the last session had Gasquet serving from the service line and Federer practicing his trademark "sabre" slice service return.

Sky were broadcasting live from the fan zone with their team of Marcus Buckland, Annabel Croft plus Greg Rusedski and Peter Fleming:

Barbara got in on the act although I'm told that it didn't get out on the live feed ..... !

So to the Fed/Novak match. The stadium was packed and rocking, the noise from the Swiss fans proved they hadn't wasted their afternoon in the bars and the Gladiator analogy was never more appropriate. In the projected show before the start Novak's 2015 record was won 73, lost 5 - but 2 of those defeats were to Federer. The first set began at a furious pace, sharp intakes of breath could be heard all around our seats as one topspin drive was countered with another even more spectacular one, 125 mph serves came back faster and shot after shot landed inches from the line. 

Eventually one of the two had to crack and, unexpectedly, it was Djokoviic 5-7, 2-6. The main difference was. the variety of play from Federer to such a degree that Djokovic ended the match hitting four successive balls out of court. 

We had seen Roger's secret though. On the practice court before the match Richard Gasquet, the ninth ranked player who was in town as the injury reserve, was hitting serves from the service court line to Roger for him to practice his "sabre" shot, the chopped serve return taken impossibly early. We were two of only about 100 people who saw this - and none of us told Novak.