There was no love lost in Stefanos Tsitsipas’ opening match at the Nitto ATP Finals against Daniil Medvedev and the story will be the same when he faces Alexander Zverev on Wednesday night.
Tsitsipas may not like either one, but his on-court history with Medvedev and Zverev could not be more different. The 21-year-old had been 0-5 against Medvedev before prevailing 7-6(5), 6-4 on Monday. On the other hand, he is 3-1 at Zverev’s expense and has won three in a row–including two this season. Tsitsipas got the job done 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 on the red clay of Madrid and 7-6(6), 6-4 in the Beijing semifinals.
The world No. 6 finished runner-up in Beijing, advanced to semis in Shanghai and Basel, and reached the quarters in Paris. Not including a retirement in Zhuhai, Tsitsipas hasn’t lost to anyone outside the top 5 since round one of the U.S. Open (Andrey Rublev). With his London defeat of Medvedev, the Greek is now sporting a 14-5 record this fall.
“It’s a good start into Nitto Finals this way,” Tsitsipas assured. “I felt very relaxed today. I don’t know why; just the importance of me standing on this court just relaxes me, for some reason. I feel really comfortable, and I felt like I had nothing to be afraid of. Just being on that court is already a big excitement, a big joy. It’s something that I dreamt always, and it does feel very special.”
Zverev has lifted a trophy on this court before–just last year, in fact. The defending champion struggled by his standards throughout the 2019 campaign but set himself up nicely for more success in London by making a run to the Beijing semifinals and the Shanghai final (lost to Medvedev). Zverev kicked off this week with a 6-2, 6-4 beatdown of a rusty Rafael Nadal on Monday night.
“He played a fantastic match [against Medvedev], I thought, especially for the first time playing here,” the German said of Tsitsipas. “It’s never easy…. We played two times this year; both didn’t go my way but both (were) fantastic matches. Especially I think in Beijing it was very, very close and could have gone both ways even though it was two sets.
“It’s going to be interesting. I’m looking forward to it; I’m happy to be playing this match on Wednesday. We’ll see how it goes, but I think looking back at this match [against Nadal] I feel well on court.”
With both players’ confidence restored in a big way following relative summer slumps, this should be a good one. A slight edge may go to Tsitsipas based on head-to-head history and the fact that he passed arguably a tougher and even more important test on Monday.
Pick: Tsitsipas in 3
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Hard to pick one; leaning toward Stefanos, in 3 sets, I guess.
Sascha not quite as sharp. How did Rafa lose to him? He must have been striking the better and deeper and getting better serves in.
Tsitsipas is dialed in, serving well, showing patience but attacking. And he’s to serving for the match …..wins it! Well done Stefanos.
Sascha at one win/ one loss. So he’s still in, though he lost that one.
Great from Tsitsi! Nadal next, could be match of the tournament.
HIGHLY doubt that
Why,because Tsitsi already qualified?
Maybe we’ve had match of tournament already..
The way Sasha was playing, it’s quite shocking; it’s shockingly bad! I mean Tsitsipas was beating him so comfortably, even though Sasha was serving 140+ mph serves.
It goes to show how poor a performance Rafa put up in his match vs Sasha! Tsitsipas isn’t even that great a ROS yet he’s able to deal with Sasha.
Maybe that’ll give Medvedev hope, that he could also beat Sasha, if not for the SF berth, at least to salvage some pride, gets 200 points and additional prize money, so why not?
Rafa vs Tsitsipas- Rafa has to play better than his Medvedev match, and hopefully to beat Tsitsipas in straight sets and not let the match drag on, so as to conserve energy for the SF as there won’t be any off day before the SF (a bit unfair to this Group).
I think Med should beat Zverev and Tsitsi/Nadal will both want to win in two. Esp Tsitsi.