Men's Tennis Logic Puzzle Walkthrough

1) Djokovic says that no-one finished in a worse position in their group than a Spaniard. There are three Spaniards in the grid, Almagro, Nadal and Ferrer. Nadal and Ferrer are in the same group, so we cannot work out Nadal and Ferrer’s positions, but we do know that Almago must have finished in fifth place in his group.

 

2) Every Frenchman reached the quarter-finals, and progressed no further. Therefore, Simon, Gasquet were the two qualifiers in Group B. As we know from Djokovic’s clue that no-one finished lower in their group than a Spaniard, Tommy Haas has to have come third in his group.

3) Juan Martin Del Potro is the Argentinian Grand Slam winner, who must have come third in his group, as that is the lowest non-qualification spot left in Group A.

4) There are two seeds in Group D, Tsonga and Murray. We know that Murray must have lost to Tsonga. As Tsonga qualified, and no winner of a group lost a set in the group stages, Murray must have come second, as he later played, and lost to Berdych. Putting Berdych and Murray into the tournament tree, we can work out where they met. Murray was in Quarter-Final 3, and Berdych in Quarter-Final 4. The winners of Quarter-Finals 3&4 could not meet until the final, so as Murray lost to Berdych, Murray must have been the runner-up, and Berdych the champion.

5) Only four of the seeds qualified to the knockout stages. As none of the seeds from Groups A or B qualified for it, all of the seeds from Groups C and D made the knockout stages. Switzerland was not represented in the semi-finals, so Roger Federer must have been knocked out in the quarter-finals.

6) There are two North American players, Raonic and Querrey. One win was shared between them, so as the points in Group D were distributed 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0, Raonic and Querrey must have finished 4^th and 5^th in some order, one having defeated the other. Therefore, Nishikori must have finished third in his group.

7) As Sam Querrey beat Milos Raonic, so Querrey came 4^th and Raonic 5^th in their group.

8) There are two semi-final spots left, both of which must be occupied by the two Group A qualifiers, as there were none from Group B and one each from Group C and D.

9) Raonic tells us that seeds 5-8 always did better in their group than seeds 1-4. This means that Ferrer must have come last in his group and Nadal fourth.

10) Every one of Group 3’s matches was won in two sets. This means that going by the fact that the points were distributed 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0, each placing in the group had the following Sets Win/Loss score – 1^st: 8/0; 2^nd: 6/2; 3^rd: 4/4; 4^th: 2/6 and 5^th: 0/8. Swiss players lost six sets in total. Roger Federer must have won his group, as Berdych came second, so he won every set and lost only 2, when he lost to Murray. To make six sets lost in total by Swiss players, Wawrinka must have come third, so he lost 4 sets.

11) The sets difference for the Germans was -7. Tommy Haas must have won two and lost two, with one of the losses having to be Simon, who came second in the group. Haas therefore won two matches 2-0, lost one match 1-2 and lost the other match 0-2, meaning his set difference was 5-4. To make the combined sets difference for the Germans -7, Kohlschreiber must have had a sets difference of -8. The only way he could have achieved this was to come last in the group, so Kohlschreiber was fifth placed.

12) Tipsarevic must have taken the final place, fourth.

13) Done! Congratulations!