Group B was full of surprises.  Robin Soderling was the 9th ranked player in points for the ATP World Tour Finals and only made it in because Andy Roddick was still injured and not ready to play.  He made the most of his opportunity by winning over Nadal and Djokovic in straight sets.  The straight set loss put Djokovic in trouble.

Davydenko would play Robin Soderling.  If he won in any capacity, he and Robin Soderling would go to the semifinals.  That’s because a win would mean Davydenko did not lose any match in straight sets, which Djokovic did to Soderling.

Soderling, however, had one worry.  If Davydenko won in straight sets, Soderling would actually end up second in Group B and have to play Roger Federer.  Again.  And he’s played him plenty this year and still ended up 0-fer.  He’s not beaten Federer ever.  However, if Soderling could win one set, he’d have enough sets won that he’d retain top seed, and play Juan Martin del Potro, since he’d the the top guy in Group B, while del Potro would be the 2nd guy in Group A.

Although it looked like Davydenko might win in straight sets, Soderling pulled his game together just enough to win the second set.  At this point, it didn’t matter to him whether he beat Davydenko or not.  Davydenko also has a poor record against Federer, and so that was his problem.

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic became the second guy with a 2-1 record not to make the semifinals, except this time, only the set win percentage was the primary tiebreak rule applied, unlike Andy Murray who lost in the game win percentage tiebreak when the set win percentage tiebreak put the top 3 players in Group A tied.

Tomorrow, Federer plays Davydenko in the early match and Soderling plays Juan Martin del Potro in the late match.