The Green Group is in action in Turin on Wednesday, with Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud fighting to stay alive in round-robin play.
Both Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas have already lost a match at the Nitto ATP Finals. Ruud dropped his first round-robin match to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, while Tsitsipas was dominated by Andrey Rublev. As such, both men go into Wednesday’s match with their respective tournament futures on the line.
It’s an intriguing matchup. Ruud clawed his way into Turin on the strength of his post-Wimbledon European clay results. The Norwegian won three tournaments in a row. He had quarterfinal showings in Toronto and Cincinnati but faltered early at the U.S. Open to Botic Van de Zandschulp. Suffice it to say that the lightning-fast conditions in Turin this week are not optimal for Ruud’s success.
He has a win over Tsitsipas this year, but it was on clay. The world No. 4 got revenge with an absolute shellacking in Toronto on hard courts.
Ordinarily it would be easy to pick Tsitsipas for the win. The Greek has a good (if not spectacular) game for fast surfaces, and he has already won a Nitto ATP Finals title back in 2019. The problem is that Tsitsipas is nursing an arm injury, forcing a retirement at the Paris Masters a couple of weeks ago. He was spotted holding his elbow in his 6-4, 6-4 loss to Rublev on Monday.
Therefore the question is whether the surface is enough of an edge to allow Tsitsipas to nurse his injury for a bit longer and pick up a win. I say yes; Ricky says no.
Cheryl pick: Tsitsipas in 3
Ricky pick: Ruud in 3
WWW?
Rudd has the momentum…in 3.
More like the Green Group is in inaction! Shitsi pulled out with an elbow injury, will be replaced by Norrie. I think Ruud will win today. This year the WTF may be won by the Last Man Standing.
Yeah, the whole thing is quite the train wreck, isn’t it?