Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will lead their respective countries into ATP Cup quarterfinal action on Friday. Djokovic is going up against Denis Shapovalov, while Nadal faces familiar foe David Goffin.
Novak Djokovic (SRB) vs. Denis Shapovalov (CAN)
Seven of the eight ATP Cup quarterfinal teams are the same as they were in the 2019 Davis Cup two months ago, both Serbia and Canada included. The Canadians–who finished runner-up in Madrid–needed plenty of help to get here, but the fact they were on thin ice was no fault of Shapovalov’s. He went 2-1 in singles against Stefanos Tsitsipas (win), Alex de Minaur (loss), and Alexander Zverev (win) to go along with an essential doubles victory over Germany with Felix Auger-Aliassime.
The world No. 14’s tough sledding continues in the form of a fifth career contest against Djokovic on Friday. Djokovic is sweeping the head-to-head series 4-0 overall with a dominant 9-1 record in total sets. No set has been more competitive than 6-4. The second-ranked Serb appears to be up to his usual tricks Down Under, having picked up straight-set round-robin victories at the expense of Kevin Anderson, Gael Monfils, and Christian Garin. This should be an extremely entertaining but mostly one-sided showdown.
Pick: Djokovic in 2 with no tiebreakers
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Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs. David Goffin (BEL)
Nadal and Goffin will be squaring off for the sixth time in their careers on Friday. The 33-year-old Spaniard leads the head-to-head series 4-1, although Goffin won their only previous hard-court meeting 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-4 at the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals (Nadal was far less than 100 percent due to a knee injury.
This time around, the world No. 1 is healthy, well-rested, and in fine form. So far at the ATP Cup he has defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili, Pablo Cuevas, and Yoshihito Nishioka in straight sets. Goffin owns a 2-1 record (beat Radu Albot and Grigor Dimitrov, lost to Dan Evans). The 11th-ranked Belgian has been blown out by Nadal only twice in five matchups, so this could be at least somewhat competitive.
Pick: Nadal in 2 losing 8-10 games
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WYG?
Rafa in 2, losing 8-10 games
Djokovic will have to go 3 as Shapo took the 1st set, but I expect he’ll get it done. Even if he loses since Serbia won the 1st match I expect they’ll win the dubs. FAA has been perfect in the ATP Cup – perfectly useless.
Hahaha…..Agree Ramara bout FAA!….Perfectly useless!
And Shapo too must be knock his head on the wall after this coz failed to capitalized his multiple BP’s earlier in the 2nd sets…and look like to lost this sets too..
Shapo’s putting up a fight in the 3rd. It’s 5 all but I’m going to bed since I don’t care that much who wins. Gotta be fresh for Spain in the morning! G’night dear MA.
Ohh bed already Ramara? Okay!….Don’t forget to wake up early for our Rafa Ramara!…Wooohooo!!….
Have a goooood nite sleep k??😴👍😚
Shapo didn’t win that important point in the TB when he’s 2-4 down, playing a lousy BH DTL that went way out. If it was Rafa, I bet he would move his legs quick enough to hit his FH instead. Had Shapo won that point he would have a chance to go 5-4 or 6-5 later on in the TB, but that’s Shapo (much like Tsitsipas), relies heavily on their SHBH (what’s the point of looking flamboyant with that BH but makes so many errors on crucial points!??).
Djoko barely survived against Shapo, a bigger test when facing Medvedev in the SF?
Shapovalov could probably benefit from some meditation; doub’t creeps into his game during his follow-through and he freezes for a second and ends up shanking shots from a dominant position. The good players like Djokovic know his weakness from a mile away and it’s a major advantage knowing your opponent will most likely hit an unforced error if you simply keep the ball in play.
Shapovalov needs to spend the next few years working on his head more than anything. Forget working on improving his ball striking, he’s already got that covered—his head is is Achilles’ heel. The amount of matches he throws away because doubt creeps into his head when his about the hit the ball is disturbing.
I find watching Nadal play doubles quite amusing; he such a sole competitor and likes the limelight all on him that it doesnt look right. Wen Careno Busta was celebrating shots, nada was like dont come to me an celebrate get on the other side of the net where you belong so I can kick your arse.
Rafa really playing poorly by his standard! He’s facing so many BPs, and when he had BPs against Goffin, he squandered all of them!
He’s not serving well at all, hows he going to win against the TOP players?? What happened to his great serve of DC? Is it because that’s indoors, so wind to affect his serve that’s why he could serve so well? Now that it’s outdoors, he’s affected by the elements?
I mean *no wind to affect his serve.
Luckily Agut won his match, so Spain still has a chance even if Rafa loses this match.
How’s Rafa going to survive having to face and save BPs so often? He’s asking for troubles!
Why is the roof closed? Rafa hates indoor conditions..,an it’s terribly humid out there..,also Rafa needs time to adjust to the new surface.., all working against Rafa…
Goffin taking the ball early and Rafa making too many UEs sobthe score is as it is… c’mon Rafa, regroup and start serving better! Rafa is so unsuccessful in challenging, he should just stop doing that…
Well closing of the roof is expected with the weather conditions in Australia. Rafa should be prepared for this, don’t expect conditions at Melbourne to be any better. If he can’t take the humidity, then too bad, he’s not going to win anything because going forward, the whole world is getting warmer due to global warming!
Rafa is just tired! Too much tennis for him lately plus five hours flight and completely new conditions all makes it too difficult to cope with..Goffin is already accustomed to this surface and that is huge advantage to play well…yet it’s Rafa’s errors which are decisive in this match.. he just doesn’t play his game…
It’s really, realy humid in sydney right now. No wonder Nadal is looking lethargic, the older you are the harder it is in this kind of weather.
But Djoko managed to edge out Shapo; and it’s under the same conditions and Djoko also flew in from Brisbane. No excuse, as I mentioned before, during Abu Dhabi exho, that Rafa was having problem with his serves. During the ATP cup, he hardly served any better; without a great serve, he’s not going far at the AO, because he will have to grind and under hot and humid conditions, he will run into plenty of physical problems!
Shapo is a bigger choker and also a lot less experienced than Goffin. Belgium team support is strong also.
Goffin is coming out of a flat period also so could be starting to peak again whereas Shapo has been at the top of his game for a while now.
Agreed. Can’t compare Goffin who managed to beat top players in the past including Novak and has plenty of experience with a classic choker like Shapovalov…besides, Novak smartly did not play doubles unlike Rafa who played two matches per day.. .
Apparently Djok has been training hard during the off season to get this game back on track whereas Nadal probably took a lot of time off after winning US Open and getting the no. 1 ranking back. Nadal should come good again at the AO.
Nadal has had very little time off, having played Laver Cup, took a few days to get married (if you’ve ever had a large wedding you’ll know how restful that is), then off to Paris Masters. After that it was WTF (only 3 matches), then Davis Cup, making a marathon run to the win there, playing singles and doubles, then Abu Dhabi, then back to training for a week…and on to Australia. Rafa really should have pulled out of Abu Dhabi imo. If Rafa makes it through AO without an injury it’ll be a miracle imo, never mind winning the thing.
Sounds like he needs a rest then. If that’s the case he might be a surprise early exit in the AO.
Natashao JAT 6:31 AM,
Both Rafa and Djoko played one doubles match in the group stage.
Bautista Agut loves it in Australia, could see a big Australian Open from him again. Medvedev and Bautista Agut are bankers, lots of money to be made on those 2.
I doubt Fed can handle this heat. The older 32+ players will struggle in this climate. Some good money to be made on picking upsets especially with the younger gen getting stronger physically. Physical strength, speed and fitness is where the changing of the guard will happen and its already in the midst of happening.
I Fed runs into a Theim, Khachanov, Medvedev in the quaters, Ill be all over the upset especially if its hot.
or Dimitrov.
The thing that pissed me off is Djoko is slowly gaining points against Rafa, and if Djoko manages to retain his AO title and Rafa loses before the final, Rafa may lose his no.1 ranking again!
It’ll be frustrating for Rafa, having to work so hard to get to no. 1 and then has to lose it again. What happen to his serve? Why is it so unreliable now?
Is Rafa playing doubles? Even if Spain wins today, Rafa will run into problems tomorrow vs De Minaur, who’s even quicker than Goffin and is well rested (having one more day rest).
Spain doesnt have a great regular doubles team it seems, that Rafa has to play both singles and doubles. What happen to Team Spain? After Feli, Marc Lopez are gone, they can’t put up a good doubles team (not including Rafa). The golden era of tennis for Spain is coming to an end soon, once these veterans are gone.
True! Can’t believe Spain did not have another option than to have Rafa play doubles as well! He shouldn’t have played the doubles match today.,,he already looked lethargic in his singles match, cannot improve all of the sudden to play his best in the decider…
You’re just now noticing?! Spain lost Ferrer is what happened. RBA’s been a great 2nd but he’s 30. As for doubles, Spain never was great there except when Rafa played. Which is why Roig has him playing when they really need the win.
Rafa says Spain’s problem is money. RFET doesn’t get revenue from a slam or even a master’s – Madrid is owned by Ion Tiriac. Canada and Italy both get cash from their Masters aka Opens.
Granollers and Marc Lopez were a good team, winning the WTF and some Masters. They used to be a regular doubles team. Where is Granollers, I think he’s better than old man Feli.
And better than PCB in doubles.
PCB is very good at dubs
Not as good as Granollers who’s good at the net. Granollers more a doubles player, PCB not so.
Granollers had a back problem after one dub match at DC and isn’t on the ATP Cup team. Granollers/Marc and Team LoLo were both very good dubs teams but they just never quite did well at DC, losing some very close matches. Feli won some DC dubs with Verdasco back in the day but they never meshed all that well and their team broke up.
As Ricky said PCB is a pretty good doubles player and I thought he did very well today. He and Rafa won Beijing in 2017 – I think that’s the last time Rafa played dubs until this year’s DC.
Rafa’s ROS is also getting poorer; he had ten BPs vs Goffin but only converted two, and Goffin isn’t even a big server! In this doubles match, both Rafa and PCB couldn’t even handle Vliegen’s serves, couldn’t figure out how to return his serve after one and a half sets of tennis.
Seems that PCB is the better player here than Rafa; Rafa almost cost Spain the break in the second set, as usual he always has problems serving for set and match.
Just horrible from Rafa, serve not ok, ROS not ok, even the FH ends up hitting to the net! Spain better wins this match, so that Rafa can have some more match practices. He’s playing below par so far here in Australia imo, needs more matches to at least get his game on track for the AO.
Why is Rafa overplaying before the ao. This is not good. I am fearful of an injury at this rate in humidity .
Fed us having last laugh resting
But Sanju, Rafa needs the matches, he needs to bring his game up to par; he’s been poor lately – poor serving, poor ROS, FH and BH not at desirable level.
If Rafa doesn’t play, and he keeps resting, he won’t feel confident about his game. I bet he’s very pumped up now after winning the doubles, pushed to the limit but still came back to win, that’s how Rafa strives in his matches. At least he would feel happy not letting the team down, by at least helping to win the doubles and getting Spain to the SF.
He’s hard wired that way, can’t help it; at least he now knows what are the areas he needs to improve; imo he really needs to work on his serve, because without a good to great serve, he will have a hard time winning in Melbourne with those hot and humid conditions.
Phew, team Spain wins finally. Rafa needs to be pushed to the brink, to the edge, before playing his best few points to win. PCB contributes a lot to this victory imo.
At least it’s a bit of redemption for Rafa, not to lose both the singles and doubles to let the team down. Rafa sounded a bit pissed with the scheduling, and to think that Rafa’s team is the TOP two team and they’re getting the worst treatment here. The last team to play the QF and also having to travel from Perth to Sydney, and their SF opponents get to play the QF the previous day and so have an extra day rest.
Terrible scheduling and terrible treatment for Rafa and his team! Shame on the organizers!
How will they be able to play tomorrow is beyond me…Rafa and his team are at huge disadvantage.,.I hate seeing Rafa meet well rested and pumped up Kyrgios under these circumstances…
Oh, I see, Rafa will play de Minaur not Kyrgious…
Rafa danced into the ATP Cup semi-finals:
https://twitter.com/TennisTV/status/1215637201192701952
🙂
Vamos Rafa and his team!!!!
✌ ✌ ✌ ✌ 💪 💪 💪 💪 👏 👏 👏 👏
Seriously, is Djoko going to play at Adelaide after this ATP Cup? He’s already looking exhausted with the humid conditions here; why play another tournament just before the AO? Is he desperately wanting to get the no.1 ranking back?
If Rafa and Djoko are killing themselves overplaying just before the AO, who would stand to gain? Fed maybe, as he’s well rested after his round of exhos; Tsitsipas disappoints this ATP cup, not playing well; Medvedev struggles at times; Thiem and Zverev 👎 this tournament. Who else?
You guys are better off cutting Rafa some slack. I’m sure he knows what’s he’s doing and also what’s good for him! He’ll be fine! I really don’t care if Spain wins this tournament, does not matter to me! I just want him to be battle tested for the AO! He knows he has the brush up on his game that’s all! As for the #1 ranking, pffffff!! Novak can have it, just want Rafa to win slams everything will fall into place!! The #1 ranking has never determined whether he wins GS or not!
Vamos Rafa!!
Djoker will pull out of Adelaide if he needs the rest. Signing up for it was probably a hedge against going out early in the ATP Cup.
Assuming Rafa finishes the ATP Cup healthy he’ll have a week to rest and train before the AO. I’d like to see Spain win. Lot of ranking points available for those worried about Rafa losing his #1, which is pretty low down on my list of worries.
If Djoko gets back to no. 1, he would be even harder to beat at the slams, because as a no. 1, he would not want to lose it again, at least not without a fight (being no. 1 seems to be Djoko’s obsession in addition to winning slams and catching Fedal) and he may put up performances like the AO2019 even more often!
I think Djoko is eyeing Fed’s weeks at no. 1 record, in addition to catching Fed’s slam records.
I hope Rafa is ready to counter the force that is Djoko. Its time Rafa gets some serious wins over Djoko, esp at the slams, including on non clay surfaces.
Nadal just had problems adapting to the humidity. He is sweating more than most anyway and this probably gets close to unbearable when he switches to a wet sauna. Changing the venue and climate overnight is not easy in a sport where the margins are so small. Rafa is neither undercooked / untrained nor tired. He’ll play better tomorrow. It is a bit absurd to think that Djoko trained more than him.
I think that one key reason why Nadal didn’t win Miami is the humidity over there. He just didn’t adapt well/fast enough. IW is just before that and it’s so dry, which probably makes adjustment harder.
Playing in the evening for the next two days will probably help, but Spain’s ATP Cup chances might be spoiled by this one factor.
In any case, if no injury occurs, Rafa should be just fine by all means when AO starts.
Not really. Rafa played great in Miami when he was younger, just never quite got over the finish line. He says 2010 should have been his year to win it but his knee went out on him in the semis v Roddick and Rafa was as angry as I’ve ever seen him, pounding on his knee with his fist and swearing at it in Mallorquin. Nowadays he seems to pass on Miami – doesn’t want to take chances with the clay season to prepare for, I think.
Rafa not ever winning Miami is really strange. He was able to play injury free most of the time. He was’t tired. He was in form more often than not. Rafa failing to get over the finish line for no particular reason is not really plausible. I was just saying that there must be some extra factor, and climate may be an explanation. I think he lost or withdrew on several occasions due to fatigue, dehydration, lethargy or similar.
On outdoor hardcourts, Nadal is as good as Federer and Djokovic. I don’t think that him not winning Miami is just bad luck.
Not bad luck, the factors are Fed and Djoko. He had lost Miami finals to both Fed (2005, 2017) and Djoko (2011, 2014), so essentially he has to be able to beat them should he meet them in the finals. I think if he can bear them at Miami in the final, he can beat anyone else.
He lost to davydenko once in miami final.. 5 time runnerup he is
Come to think of it, Spain was really doing not bad against Belgium, because I realized that Belgium was playing at Sydney all along, so they’re used to the court surface and the weather there! Furthermore, they were well rested not having to play for two days (they last played on Tuesday) before the QF.
The Spanish team OTOH had to travel to Sydney from Perth and had only one day to get used to the conditions at Sydney (last played on Wed before the QF).
I don’t know how the organisers are going to improve on this going forward, it will be unfair to those teams playing the group stage at the other two locations.
Imagine Spain playing against a stronger team than Belgium, say a well rested Australia in the QF, Spain would be at a big disadvantage. Or Belgium having to play a weaker team than Spain, Belgium would then have a big advantage.
The SF between Serbia and Russia should be a good one, Khachanov may beat Lajovic and Medvedev could certainly put up a tough fight vs Djoko.
Spain vs Aussie, I think Kyrgios will be too much for Agut; if Rafa is pumped up after winning the QF, perhaps he would beat De Minaur. The doubles may then be the deciding match again.
Actually I expect Kyrgios to choke against RBA. I doubt that he can bring his best tennis (and sustain it long enough) against a less acclaimed opponent. The Spaniard is so disciplined, he will exasperate Nick. Rafa playing bad two days in a row is again not very likely unless the conditions get the best of him.
NK has been relying on his big serve. Their match will depend on RBA being able to return well. We’ll see. Rafa has been very troubled by high humidity in the past few years while the Aussies are used to the conditions.
Hey guys!…This is interesting…
https://www.watoday.com.au/sport/tennis/de-minaur-could-be-rested-20200111-p53qkz.html
Let’s c whether DeMon is gonna play today or not…if not,then my theory is right that Nicky is desperately wants to play Rafa..1)bcoz he is so obsessed with Rafa 2)what did he say while ago?Oh yeah!…i smell blood when i c this guy on the other end 3) They know Nicky has huge adv over Rafa if they put Nicky instead of DeMon..and Rafa’s condition too is not very good atm…
Btw…What the heck is about DeMon ‘mentally exhausted’ this past week??I mean ATP Cup is the bo3..unlike slams when u have to play bo5 in 7 days???How do u want to play grand slam when u ‘re already mentally exhausted after just playing 3,4 matches in the bo3??😂👈
Just some dirty tricks by the Aussie; I hope it backfires!
Agut can beat Millman and I hope Rafa will beat Kyrgios and then end of story. It’s even better than Rafa having to play two matches in one day. Points will be short playing against Kyrgios, so even if Rafa has to play the doubles he’ll be less stressed physically.
Anyway everyone knows Kyrgios desperately wants to beat Rafa, it’s not news!
Lol, I guess DeMinaur has recovered from his Greek fever just in time to come down with a nice case of Spanish flu… Pity, I kind of like the Demon, but I wonder what this is doing for his self-confidence.
These commies are just so shameless!! It was so obvious that they were just dying for Rafa to lose to Dimanur!!! Well I’m happy Rafa showed them whose boss!!! Sigh!