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WTFs: World Twitter Finals

By Lindsay on November 7, 2013

This year at the accurately-acronymed WTFs, HISTORY is being made. No, I’m not talking about Wawrinka making his debut, or Nadal clinching the year-end No. 1, or even Delpo being historically adorable. No. I’m talking about social-media history.

For the first time ever, all eight WTF finalists AND both alternates (Tsonga and Raonic, if you were wondering) are on Twitter!

I don’t even know how there hasn’t been a press release and Tennis Channel special about it yet. THANK GOODNESS you guys have me to tell you about such things.

So, to honor such a special occasion, I thought it would be fun to look at what the player have been tweeting during their time in London. After all, that’s way more important than what they’re doing on the court!

1. Rafael Nadal

Okay, so in case you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Rafael Nadal created #H1STORY of his own today, clinching the year-end No. 1 for the first time since 2010. Not bad for a guy who had a butt-load (pun intended, lol I’m clever) of question-marks surrounding him this time last year.

As of writing this, he’s 2-0 in his group, with wins over Ferrer and Wawrinka. He’s trying to win the WTFs for the first time in his career, so, you know, he’s motivated.

(Also, HEY UNCLE TONI!)

Anyways, Rafa might be great at tennis, but he’s really pretty awful at Twitter. It’s pretty well-known that it’s his PR guy Benito doing most of the tweeting, and for a PR guy he’s not great at social media. Most of Rafa’s tweets are links to his FB account:


Or occasionally promo stuff for his friends:


But listen, life just wouldn’t be fair if everyone was awesome at everything. Let’s just all be happy that there have been no new hashtags created this tournament. (NO JINX NO JINX NO JINX.)

2. Novak Djokovic

Okay, so if you’ve still been hiding out under that rock, you might have missed that Novak Djokovic is ON FIRE right now. He might not be No. 1 anymore, but he’s won 18 straight matches, which is LOTS. He’s in a tough round-robin group, but he’s already got a win over Federer so he’s off to a great start.

On the Twitter front, though? He’s been sadly silent this week. But Nole is a sweet tweeter, very invested in his #NoleFam.


3. David Ferrer

Oh Ferru. It’s been a season of highs and lows for the Spaniard, but he’s coming off one of his best weeks since the French Open–he beat Nadal for his first Top-5 win in FOREVER and made it to the final where he lost to Nole. Still, he’s pretty knackered here in London, where he lost his first two matches to Nadal and Berdych.

His Twitter account is just as precious as you’d think. It’s mostly in Spanish, and he RTs his fan club often and tweets pictures of team dinners.

A HUG TO ALL.

4. Juan Martin del Potro

Look, in my eyes, Delpo can really do no wrong. (Except, you know, when he gets roped into cat-and-mouse tennis and forgets that he is a GIANT that can just SMACK THE BALL. Except for then.)

If you’re STILL under that rock (seriously, that can’t be healthy, it’s time to get up), then you might have missed that poor Delpo was robbed the other day at the train station on his way to London, and, among other things, he lost the rosary given to him and blessed by the Pope.

He was noticeably and understandably distracted when he got to London, but he squeaked out a first win over Gasquet. He’s been in pretty good form lately, and is certainly a dark horse here at the WTFs, but he has tough matches against Federer and Djokovic coming up.

But whatever, he took a little girl as his date to the gala. HE CAN DO NO WRONG. (His twitter isn’t super active, usually just a lot of links to facebook, but he tries. Kind-of.)


5. Tomas Berdych

Now nothings are starting to get serious. The guys above this on the list are all much better at tennis than Twitter. From here on out, however, the lines are a bit more blurred. Especially here with Tomas Berdych.

He’s 1-1 at the WTFs, having lost to Wawrinka and beaten Ferrer. Blah blah blah…IT’S ABOUT THE TWEETS.

After he lost his first match to Stan, his coach was not happy.

After he made it back to his hotel, he decided to do an #AskTB session on his off day.

Luckily, tb won his match today against Ferrer, so he was spared the swim.

6. Roger Federer

Yeah, okay. So we’ve all come to terms this year with the fact that Roger Federer isn’t as great at tennis as he used to be. Even he has become publicly frustrated after his opening loss to Djokovic.

But we’re not really here to talk about that, are we? No. We’re here to praise the wonderful tweeter that he has become. Seriously, bow down. We Are Not Worthy.

He’s been fairly quiet on Twitter this week, but he’s still produced some gems:

7. Stanislas Wawrinka

I have a feeling that before signing up for Twitter, Fed might have taken a lesson or three from Stan the Man. Because, as we’ve covered here before, Stan is awesome at Twitter.

This is his first time at the WTFs, and he’s making the most of it. He won his opening match against Berdych, took Nadal to two tiebreakers, and still has a chance to make the semis if he can get past Ferrer easily.

He’s been tweeting the whole time, too, which is great for us.

Oh…and HOMER IS BACK. #HomerIsBack

8. Richard Gasquet

Okay. So. This is Gasquet’s first time at the WTFs since 2007, and he only got in because Andy Murray withdrew. He got put into a really tough group with Djokovic, Federer, and Delpo. He lost his first match to Delpo despite playing really, really well for most of it.

But hey…at least he’s finally verified on Twitter and has kind-of figured out how to tweet! He’s brand new to this world, so I’m holding off all judgement. I’m just happy he’s tweeting so he can officially be a part of HISTORY.

OTHER

I mentioned that the alternates were on Twitter as well, and it’s true! So what have Jo and Milos been up to?

Well, Jo has been watching his buddy. (His twitter is a lot of facebook links, but when he does tweet himself it’s usually great.)

And Milos has been enjoying the sights…

and tweeting some Rob Ford jokes like a good Canadian.

Oh, and don’t forget about the doubles players! The Top Eight teams are in London as well competing in the tournament, and a lot of them are tweeting about their adventures. Here’s what they’re up to.

(This segment is basically just an excuse to post a picture of Verdasco’s scarf. Just wait for it. You’ll see.)

I KNOW.

Oh, and even though Andy Murray sadly wasn’t able to compete this year, he has been commentating from the Twitter sidelines.

Seriously, you guys. What would we do without Twitter? I’m glad we don’t have to live in a world where we find out.


Lindsay is an author, a filmmaker, a long-winded blogger, and a huge tennis fan.

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3 Responses

  1. Jeff
    Jeff November 7, 2013 at 4:03 am |

    Great stuff, Lindsay!

  2. Shirley Hartt
    Shirley Hartt November 7, 2013 at 8:01 am |

    Thanks for a fun post. Especially enjoyed Berdych’s having to swim to the hotel sequence. As a Toronto resident, also liked Raonic’s Rob Ford joke – although he has a lot of competition from the professional comedians!

  3. Nicole
    Nicole November 7, 2013 at 11:17 am |

    Love this column & the fun tweets!

    I have to say that one of my favorite Twitter moments this week is still when Tennis TV, at the start of the Stan/Tomas match, tweeted that you can sing “Stanislas Wawrinka” to the tune of Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita.” I still have that stuck in my head at times when I think of Stan. Which isn’t really a bad thing, because Stan needed his own theme song.

    *wanders off singing “Stanislas Wawrinka”*

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