A blockbuster semifinal lineup on Saturday in Beijing pits Rafael Nadal against Grigor Dimitrov and Alexander Zverev against Nick Kyrgios. Only Grigor Dimitrov needed three sets to get through his quarterfinal contest, as the other three title contenders mostly cruised.
(1) Rafael Nadal vs. (3) Grigor Dimitrov
Nadal and Dimitrov will be squaring off for the 10th time in their careers when they battle for a spot in the China Open final on Sunday. The head-to-head series stands at a dominant 8-1 in favor of Nadal, who is 5-1 against Dimitrov on hard courts. Interestingly, though, Dimitrov’s lone win over the Spaniard came at this same Beijing event just last year via a 6-2, 6-4 quarterfinal decision. Of course, Nadal is not the same player this time around. Back up to No. 1 in the world, the 31-year-old recent captured the U.S. Open title for his second Grand Slam triumph of 2017 and he is an awesome 59-9 this season. So far in Beijing, Nadal has taken out Lucas Pouille, Karen Khachanov, and John Isner–surrendering one set to Pouille in the process.
Likely on his way to joining Nadal at the World Tour Finals, Dimitrov has advanced this week with defeats of Damir Dzumhur, Juan Martin Del Potro, and Roberto Bautista Agut. The eighth-ranked Bulgarian is now 38-15 for his 2017 campaign. Dimitrov, however, needed three sets to scrape past both Dzumhur and Bautista Agut, while Nadal turned in his best performance of the tournament against Isner on Friday. The lopsided trend in this matchup has every reason to continue.
Pick: Nadal in 2
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(8) Nick Kyrgios vs. (2) Alexander Zverev
Zverev destroyed one of his good friends (Andrey Rublev) in the quarterfinals and he will be facing another one in the form of Kyrgios on Saturday. The two current and future stars have collided three times in their ATP careers–all this season. Kyrgios leads the head-to-head series 2-1, having prevailed 6-3, 6-4 in Indian Wells and 6-4, 6-7(9), 6-3 two weeks later in Miami. Zverev exacted a measure of revenge by getting the job done 6-4, 6-3 at the Montreal Masters.
As those results suggest, Kyrgios was on fire earlier in the year but now it is Zverev who is the more in-form of the two. The 20-year-old German has soared to No. 4 in the world thanks in part to a title in Montreal and a preceding Masters 1000 triumph on the clay courts of Rome. Zverev is 51-16 this season following Beijing victories over Rublev, Kyle Edmund, Fabio Fognini. A hip injury derailed Kyrgios’ summer, but the 19th-ranked Australian is getting back in business this fall. He played well at the Laver Cup and booked his spot in the Beijing semis by beating Nikoloz Basilashvili, Mischa Zverev, and Steve Darcis (via retirement). A steep step up in competition against a red-hot adversary will likely bring about an end to Kyrgios’ week.
Pick: Zverev in 3
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He has a real shot at WTF i think. This is his best ever on an indoor court.
Beijing is not indoor…
I want a bagel!! This smug face DESERVES such a beating. I found is ridiculous when a couple of weeks ago he said that he felt invincible when he beat DJoko and Rafa this year!! He was in a big big delusion! The Rafa he faced in Cincy was not even 70% !! THIS is the matador who has won 16 slams ad you yet to make a deep run at a slam!
I am really glad that Rafa made it so one-sided! Taking Kyrgios down a peg is sweet! He’s too full of himself and a beatdown is so appropriate!
Rafa is sending a message! Very proud of him!
Lovely to see you nny!! Have been thinking of you a lot! Wonder where Stanley is ha ha!!no trolling from him today!! Does it drive anyone else insane the way he refers to Rafa as rafito??!!
Amy,
Great to see you, too! It’s been hard to see the matches with the time difference.
You says what I was thinking about Stanley! He tries to rile up Rafa fans before a big match and then disappears! I don’t like the way he refers to Rafa as Rafito! That is not his name!
He goes on and on making nonsensical claims about how Rafa will inevitably lose and then hides when he is wrong!
I haven’t been able to watch either nny! But Rafa is obviously in great form! I have to confess that I am a bit worried about him playing so much this autumn! I want him to be fit and well for the ao!! I honestly don’t care about the wtf!!
amy,
I haven’t really cared much about the WTF to be honest. But I know that it was one of Rafa’s goals at one time because he said so.
It would be nice, but I agree with you about the bigger picture. It’s important that Rafa finish the year healthy. I was thinking that this is the first year he’s been able to play for the whole year. It’s just so nice to see him in this kind of form! This title has to feel good for him.
I agree about the 2018 AO. I stil want that double career slam for Rafa!
😀
I find it unbelievable that people buy into this Krygios nonsense that he tanks matches at will and can beat anyone he wants to beat. I think both Krygios and Tomic have failed to live up to expectations so they use lack of interest as a cover.
Yes! Vamos Rafa! Rafa wins the Beijing title again, after twelve years! He’s simply amazing! A well deserved victory for a well deserved world no.1!!
Yipee!! Rafa schools Nick
Genius at work! Fascinating match from our Rafa! Perfect on all counts
Way to go, Champ! You are the best!! 💪💪
Vamooooossss Rafa!
How do you see rafas chances at shanghai considering a tedious week for him in beijing?
I see his chances as very good. Shanghai is supposed to be the fastest court on tour, so it will feed into the strengths of guys like Federer and other good servers and for hitters. Rafa has shown that he can play really good aggressive tennis when he wants to, so his chances are as good as anyone’s. I really hope we get a Fedal final. If Rafa can play this well on a fast court, it could be a great match! As for how tired he might be, I’m not sure about that. He’ll probably be fine with a few days rest.
I don’t see this week as tedious. That is not the word I would use. I think Rafa got some great match play this week. We saw the result when he just blew Kyrgios off the court.
Beating a big server like Isner and then beating Dimi and finally Kyrgios, can only increase Rafa’s confidence. This was a well earned win!
It was kind of annoying to hear that Rafa hadn’t played a top ten player to win the USO. I do consider Delp to be a top ten player even though he is not currently ranked in the top ten. We all know why. But he won a slam and was in the top five. People love to nitpick as though a player can choose who he wants to play.
But this win was even sweeter because of the quality of Rafa’s opponents.
Nny, Rafa won usopen deservedly. People can think whatever they choose to. Consequently some people’s choices harm them, and some other’s reward in turn as they deserve. This Rafa is better than USO Rafa, in the way Indian Wells Fed was better than AO Fed.
This is best Rafa on hard I ever saw.
What??What??What??…I heard someone said Rafa’s backside gonna be kick hard today!!….Urgh!!..I never!!…hohohohohohoho!!….
Btw…Nny!!…R U HAPPY???HAH??I CAN’T HEAR U???…LET’S SCREAM!!!……WOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!….Okay!…That’s it!!…
MA,
I am jumping with joy!!!!
WOOHOO!!!!!
Stanley opened up his big mouth and put his foot in it!
Rafa is the man!!!!
😀🏆
NNy!!…..YEEEEEAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!…..JUMP AWAY MILADY!!!!WOOOOOOOHOOOOO!!
Oh Thank God!!Rafa won!!…
NNY..How about saying it was Rafas foot in his mouth :-). That would be better justice for disrespect shown to a 16 slam champion
Sanju,
Very well said!
Thank you!
😀
Beijing is indoor or outdoor?
Outdoor.
He is playing better than he was @ USO . Very good tourney, draw as tough as any GS or Masters 1000. Must be Very satisfying for him
It’s nice to see Rafa playing such quality tennis. Healthy and confident! What a joy! Rafa getting a title in this part of the tennis year is just so sweet!
I briefly checked out the Shanghai draw and Rafa should have a good shot to continue his winning ways.
Then I hope Rafa will have a break. I am starting to get excited for WTF!
oh yeah! This is a step forward as compared to his USO performance.
This was SCARY good. Rafa’s ROS, his serve (both first and second), the depth on his running shots, the penetration on his strokes, it was all just perfect! I have NEVER seen such a comprehensive performance from Rafa on such a quick surface.
For the first time, I feel he has a very good chance of winning the WTF’s!
The final must have been easy on his body but not sure whether he should play shanghai. Of course he will play there and I hope he does really well.
And, I hope NK’s delusion bubble got burst today!
Ho Ho Ho
How satisfying was that then?
I thought at 5.0 in the second set Rafa was about to ram a baguette down Mr. Curious’ throat but it wasn’t to be. Good thing it was Lahyani umpiring – he knows how to handle Kyrgios’ antics.
I did say that Kyrgios would have to continue to serve over 70% first serve percentage to beat Rafa- that is the cornerstone of his game, that suffocating serve. In the final today, he served 48% first serve percentage… That is laughable- if you serve 48% first serve percentage against Rafa, he will EAT you alive! Must admit that it feels good to see Kyrgios lose… I don’t want to dislike him, he just makes it reeeaaally hard not to. 😛 My assertion that he does not yet have what it takes to win a tournament where he has to face a big 4 player continues to be correct. He has gotten big wins over the Big 3, but it has never lead to anything meaningful. If a tournament has one or more Big 4 players at it, you can pretty much guarantee that Kyrgios level will suddenly drop severely, usually after playing at a very high level in the earlier rounds. Until he figures this problem out, I think he will end up one of the biggest wastes of talent ever. And as much as I can’t stand him, I really do feel like the sport will need really talented, box-office players like him when the Big 4 are gone…
If ever there was a player who deserved to be knocked down in a one-sided final, it’s Kyrgios. I dislike arrogance when one has not done much yet in a sport. Kyrgios has had his wins against the top four at times, but not when it mattered most.
I didn’t see the match, but hearing about gamesmanship by Kyrgios makes me even happier that he got trounced.
I do think the Kyrgios could wind up as the biggest waste of talent ever. He just does not have the attitude and commitment to the sport.
It’s special when Rafa can beat Kyrgios on a court like this. We always hear so much about how Rafa hasn’t won a hard court title in so long. Now he’s got the USO and Beijing.
Big grats to Rafa!! I love it when he just shows up!
I’ll say one thing for NK. He’s genuine. He is what he is, the good, the bad and the ugly.
So, apart from the only service game that Kyrgios won, Rafa had breakpoint chances in all his service games. So, much so for the man broken only once in tournament so far. Today was a rout against a very dangerous guy. I dont think Last 2 US Open matches and Beijing, is the best I have seen him on hard courts all his career. Serve doing well, especially second serve numbers are just out of the world. BH CC is the killer shot which just pushes the opponents in the corner and he can just take control. FH DTL is working very well, has been reliable all thru the tourney. If I am not wrong he was broken just thrice in whole tournament against all very tough opponets . Draw was brutal.
After Shanghai, he should skip Bercy or Basel. WTF should be his only aim now. One very good thing for Rafa is , he is very very clutch on his service games especially when break points down. Confidence is sky high.
@fedexal, you seem to know a good deal about Rafa’s game, Fedexal. There are a few posters out here (NNY, Luckystar and some others) whom I rely on to gauge rafa’s level if I miss any of his sets/matches. You also make good observations so bravo!
Rafa’s second serve win ratio is crazy. I no longer sound like a fool boasting about it because he is winning matches and tournaments now and people believe it now lol
Guys, I pulled out some numbers from the past to this statistical comparison to see how damn well Rafa is doing on his second serves:
Federer’s 2nd serve win % in 2006, 2007, 2017 : 58.9%, 59.0%, 59.3%
Djokovic’s 2nd serve win % in 2011, 2015: 60.2%, 55.6%
Nadal’s 2nd serve win % in 2008, 2010, 2013, 2017:,60.8%, 59.5%, 56.8%, 61.3%
So far in 2017, Rafa’s won 61.3% of 2nd serves, which is the best ever winning % in the last couple of decades for a top player!
Fed has never crossed the 60% mark while Djoko did it once in 2015.
For further perspective, Sampras was averaging about 52-53% in his prime years!
vamosrafa,
Bless you for those stats! Wow! That really tells the story! I do think that Rafa’s improved second serve has been a game changer for him. It’s been on my personal wish list for some time. We see that there is so much less pressure on him because he has a strong and effective second serve to back him up.
His game is clicking and has come together beautifully. But the improved second serve has been a big part of it.
Thanks for posting those stats!
😀
I think Moya is the one who helps Rafa concentrates on improving his second serve, in addition to improving his first serve of course. I mean, if we could see the need for Rafa to improve his serves (esp his second serves), I’m sure Moya could easily see that as an area for improvement.
I also wonder how Rafa could think of returning serves from so far back yet it’s so effective that we can’t really fault him or criticize him for doing that. The way he returned both Isner and Kyrgios’ big serves, and on such a fast HC, it’s unbelievable.
Stanley, it looks like Kyrgios is a non-smoker. He leads a healthy lifestyle 🙂
Yeah, one can hardly not notice the sky high confidence in Rafa’s game post USO!! I for one did not find myself terrified when Rafa was saving break points in this match! It was pretty obvious that Rafa would find his best serve or best game when it mattered the most! Amazing to watch this Rafa! Such a treat for our eyes! I love it!
I think whether we like Kygrios or not, he’s good for tennis when he can bring in the crowd and keeps tennis interesting, esp after the big four retire.
Kygrios is the one who has to decide what he wants out of his tennis career, whether he wants to work hard to realize his full potential, or just simply depends on his raw talent and hangs around in the tour until he gets disinterested and decides to leave.
During this whole week, I’m liking both Dimi and Goffin after seeing how they played and their attitude. I think both of them are on the upward trajectory of their career. I think both will get to the WTF this year, and, they may win a slam or two later in their career once the big four retire or decline.
As for the younger gen guys, I see Shapovalov as a good potential to become a good to great player; he at least has some varieties in his game, unlike the other youngsters who simply serve big and hit hard from the baseline and not much else. Shapo’s problem is his go for broke mentality, sometimes it’s too hit or miss. He has to improve the precision of his shots, and plays with some controlled aggression.
Sasha too as he matures will become a great player and having played doubles with his older brother, may improve his skills at the net. I do think Sasha looked fatigued during this Beijing Open; I guess he’s still young and is just starting to get used to the weekly grind of the main tour. He having won so much already this season may feel the physical strain by this time of the season.
It’s not easy as a 20 year old to play week in week out in the main tour and sometimes playing b2b events. I remember Rafa as a 19 yo in 2005 winning Montreal but lost early in the next week at Cincy. Djoko too in 2007 as a 20 yo lost early at Cincy after winning at Montreal.
Congrats to R. Nadal.
I didn’t watch the match and i will never watch the highlight, ok i will, i will watch it later or download it if it’s available.
I haven’t read all the comments here and i probably won’t read it, no time but if you left me an important message repost it or direct me to the time & page i only have few minutes to spare.
Rafito smoked Nick, he humbled him but prior to the match some of U where belittling the importance of this match & tournament but some of your celebrations speaks volumes, it is different hmm… Ok.
Judging by the comments of those who watched the match & result, N. Kyrgios wasn’t focused in this match and we all know how Kyrgios is, once he loses interest game over.
Once again Congrats to my Rafito.
On a different topic, Nativenewyorker i think you are a woman so please i am begging u, act like a lady, if you want me to treat according to your comments i will and i won’t hesitate but i want 2 treat you like a lady even though you haven’t given me a reason to, plzzz act like a lady.
U can laugh at me 4 picking Nick i deserve it, make jokes, you can even make fun of me that’s OK i will take it alright, but but but be mindful of your words it’s important.
Leave nny alone Stanley!! We all know how you view ‘ladies’ any way ie as sexual objects, until they offend you when you unleash a barage of insults.
Kindly stop calling Rafa rafito!! It’s unutterably annoying. Also stop trying to chat up women on site or referring to female tennis stars as your babies and coming up with ludicrous and extremely offensive fantasies about them.
amy,
Thank you for that! I was going to answer Stanley, but you have said I all much better than I ever could!
I really do find Stanley’s comments towards the female posters on this site quite condescending and inappropriate at times. As far as lecturing me about behaving like a lady, I think it might be nice if Stanley behaved like a decent man with proper respect for all on this site, but especially women.
This is not a dating site! It’s a tennis site and we are here to discuss the matches and players and competition. There is a non-tennis topic thread for anything not related to tennis.
Stanley’s comments before the final were meant to rile up and antagonize Rafa fans. It was not about making a prediction because it went far beyond that. It was a blatant attempt to aggravate Rafa fans by saying repeatedly how afly he would lose, no question or doubt about it, never in doubt and on and on.
Rafa let his racket do the talking for him. Enough said!
Sorry, in my previous post I meant to say how Stanley talked about how badly Rafa would lose in the final!
Misogynist simple stanley. At least you’re government suits you.
I think its a myth that Rafa does not like fast outdoor/indoor conditions. In fact his game benefits more on faster surfaces than slow surfaces. Rafa’s improvements are noticeable.
1.Has got outwide serve on deuce now and he gets lots of free points there. Earlier he was predictable with down the T serve and opponents can sit on their BH and can actually put his own BH under pressure especialy DH Backhands.
2. He is coming to net more and finishing points quickly and and volleying really well.
3. FH has been good really throughout and he has added more depth with his CC Forehand. Also he picks up really brutal shots from his FH side so easily.
4. BH CC is just so reliable from so tight positions, picks up very deep shots from that wing and just pushes opponents wide now and his DL FH can take the control then. Very tiring for opponents.
5.He is using the drop shot from his forehand side well.
6. His BH slice is keeping lower now and just adds more variety to his game. Its such an improved shot over his career and thats one shot that will serve him well on grass courts.
all in all he is a very well rounded player now. His BH DTL can improve a little but thats improved as well this year. His game looks so easy now . I think he did not play so well in 2013 after USO and was playing short in Beijing and WTF specialy from his BH side against Djokovic. He is a far better player now.
Rafa played with confidence. A joy to watch.
No one would beat him in that form. Too good.
Now with a 2360 pt lead in the race over fading federer.
Yeah, Rafa is year-end #1. They really should have given him the trophy for that in addition to the Beijing one. I guess technically it’s possible for Fed to get it, but it would require him to win every tournament he plays here on out AND for Rafa to have the most epic collapse. I don’t see either of those things happening, especially the latter.
Well Shanghai will finally determine that Kevin. If fed wins Shanghai it again will get a bit tricky.
I agree that Rafa is a better player now than his 2013 self. I have finally seen every part of Rafa’s game, every tool in his toolbox, all functioning very well at the same time in this match!
What a joy to behold! His ROS in this match was especially impressive, returning Kyrgios’ >200 kph serves with interest and had BPs in almost all of Kyrgios’ service games! A Zverev couldn’t even get his racket on many of those > 200 kph missiles from Kygrios! As expected, Rafa is a much much better returner of serves than A Zverev.
Rafa was putting so much pressure on Kyrgios’ serves, it’s no wonder Kygrios could only managed a low first serve %. He was serving so well vs A Zverev in the SF.