Rafael Nadal will begin another bid for a first-ever Nitto ATP Finals title when he goes up against debutant Andrey Rublev on Sunday night.
Nadal is just 18-14 lifetime at the year-end championship (14-10 since it moved to London in 2009). He has been to the final only twice, first in 2010 (lost to Roger Federer in three sets) and again in 2013 (lost to Novak Djokovic in straights). The second-ranked Spaniard has played only four matches at this event in the last four years.
However, this could the 34-year-old’s best chance to get over the hump. The five-month hiatus due to the coronavirus crisis has left him healthy and well-rested for the stretch run of the season. Nadal skipped the U.S. Open and then made mincemeat out of the competition en route to a 13th French Open title. However, victory at the Paris Masters continued to elude him with a semifinal setback against Alexander Zverev.
Rublev stormed out of the 2020 gates on fire and the five-month break did not come close to halting his momentum. The eighth-ranked Russian is the ATP titles leader with five, having triumphed in Adelaide, Doha, Hamburg, St. Petersburg, and Vienna. He also reached the quarterfinals at both the U.S. Open and French Open.
Rublev’s first-ever London qualification gives him another shot at Nadal following a 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 beatdown suffered at the 2017 U.S. Open. Of course, the 23-year-old is a completely different player now. Rublev is the hottest player in tennis these days, so you have to think this will be competitive.
Still, the underdog has never played inside the O2 Arena and a well-rested Nadal should have enough in the tank to battle his way to an opening win.
Pick: Nadal in 3
WWW?
Be calm, be focused, be confident, be courageous, be strong, Rafa!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Em3a0dlWMAAqnPF?format=png&name=medium
Rafa!
If it were up to the forum polls, Rafa would never lose another match! 🙂 The truth is I dunno. You can make a case for most of them. Djokovic, obviously. He’s won it 4 or 5 times. The conditions suit him to a T. But how motivated is he? He doesn’t need the points, although they’d certainly be nice for him to have next year if he wants those #1 records to himself. Medvedev is probably the most in-form of the lot. Tsitsi won it last year in a very tight final with Thiem. Rublev has been the hottest player on tour all year. Zverev seems to have been inspired by his off-court notoriety or maybe by new coach Ferrer and he won it 2 years ago. Sorry, Shorty, but I don’t think it’ll be you. So maybe it will be! Then there’s Rafa who’s played it a lot of times…without a lot of success. But history never troubles Rafa that much…It’s just another challenge.
I am not making predictions. I don’t do it much anymore. I know that this court is not friendly to Rafa’s game. The one thing he has going for him now is that he is fresh and healthy. I still think it’s all about the slams. It would be nice for him to win it finally, but we saw what happens on this surface with Zverev playing Rafa in the quarterfinals in Paris.
These young guys are playing well. I am not sure that Djoker will have an easy time of it. I get to see Rafs play a little more and that is always a good thing.
I love Rafa, but Rublev IS the next generation….in 2.
Ah, but Rafa is the NOW generation…in 2. 🙂
Rafa’s problem on indoor (Paris) this year was his ROS, which is normally excellent. He tried moving closer to the baseline and decided that was not a good idea. Not really sure but I think Rublev isn’t a really big server – his strength is his baseline play?
I can’t speak for his performance vs Rafa, Ramara – I didn’t watch.
Rublev has a decent first serve. Usually. And Rublev’s second serves used to be a weakness – he’s been better with that. Rafa probably killed his 2nd serve percentage!
I didn’t need to watch that match. Mostly a die-hard Rafa fan would like it. Did not want to watch Novak vs Diego either!
Good win, Rafa!
Vamos Champ!
‘The hottest player in tennis right now’ still isnt that impressive at the highest level.
Rublev may not be quite there yet. The first time a player gets to this tournament is not always successful. Rafa was able to deal with him quite well. But Thiem is another thing altogether. We will see how it goes.
It is just cruel to put Rublev out there on Day One vs Rafa. Also, Schwartzman should not have to play Novak first. It would be much more exciting to have Rafa play Thiem first and Novak plays Medvedev! Let the newbies get used to the water vs a lesser megastar. This afternoon will finally be a match that I’m interested in seeing, although we just watched the same match in the Paris Final. Meddy vs Sascha was a close match and they will be freshly primed for each other :D, god-willing. Finally a good match. Not that I dislike doubles, but there are not exciting doubles this year – maybe Kubot and Mello but the rest of them, bah.
Oh, I forgot, Thiem vs Tsitispas was okay. Thiem is such a perfectionist though and Stephanos can be a pain, too. Nothing too terrible – just not the most fun match-up. Favorite tennis match-up of the week was the Sofia final. 😀
test
So I lost a post. Maybe it was too long and boring to go through. lol….
Mostly it was complaining. But I did say I liked Kubot and Melo.
I have yet to watch a Nitto match. But I will watch Meddy v Sascha coming up next, even though we just saw them play each other in the Bercy Final. I don’t expect it to be much different…maybe this time Sascha in 3.
My favorite match over the weekend was the Sofia final: Jannik Sinner vs Vasek Pospisil 🙂
Any match with Sinner right now has got to be worth watching .
I think Rublev has a much better chance against Thiem, better matchup.