The inaugural NextGen ATP Finals began on Tuesday in Milan, where Borna Coric, Andrey Rublev, Hyeon Chung, and Daniil Medvedev were Day 1 winners.
But first, a rules refresher:
– Best-of-five sets
– Sets are first to four, with a tiebreaker played at 3-3
– No-ad scoring
– No lets
– Coaching via headsets allowed in between sets
– No challenges; line calls are made electronically (no linesmen)
– Strictly enforced 25 seconds in between points
– Crowd can move around freely, not just during changeovers
The scoring format is why these results may look foreign to the eye:
– Andrey Rublev defeated Gianluigi Quinzi 1-4, 4-0, 4-3(3), 0-4, 4-3(3)
– Borna Coric defeated Jared Donaldson 4-3(2), 4-1, 4-3(5)
– Hyeon Chung defeated Denis Shapovalov 1-4, 4-3(5), 4-3(4), 4-1
– Daniil Medvedev defeated Karen Khachanov 2-4, 4-3(6), 4-3(3), 4-2
Because of the unique format, no contest exceeded the two-hour mark–not even the five-setter between Rublev and Quinzi. Rublev, a U.S. Open quarterfinalist who earned the No. 1 seed after a year-long race to Milan, prevailed in one hour and 46 minutes. Coric won the lone straight-setter, while Medvedev survived the longest match of the day (one hour and 50 minutes) against his fellow Russian and good friend Khachanov.
“It was actually amazing,” Medvedev said after winning the first match of the week. “The crowd was big. Playing against your friend for the first time on the ATP was a special feeling. I really liked it.
“I like most of the rules. I like to play without the let; it’s just fun. I like the deciding point. One minute (and) 30 (seconds) between games, two minutes between the sets gives you more time to recover. I didn’t really like that the crowd can walk (during points); this is too much I think. That’s probably the only thing.”
Medvedev and Coric, the two Group B winners, will go head-to-head on Wednesday. That leaves Khachanov to meet Donaldson. In Group A, Rublev will square off against Chung and Shapovalov will face Quinzi.
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