Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev will be squaring off for the sixth time in their careers when they contest Monday’s nightcap at the Nitto ATP Finals.
Like the opening matchup on Day 2 featuring Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, this head-to-head series also stands at 5-0–in Nadal’s favor, of course. Zverev butchered an easy backhand volley on match point that would have given him a win in their first-ever meeting at the 2016 Indian Wells Masters and it has been downhill ever since for the 22-year-old German. After losing twice in a row in straight sets, Zverev at least managed to snag one set during a 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 loss in the 2018 Rome final.
The world No. 7 knows he can be competitive with Nadal and the fact that he is the defending champion of this tournament will only bolster his confidence levels. That 2018 London triumph should have been a precursor of huge things to come for Zverev this season, but instead he continued to struggle at the Grand Slams and regressed from No. 3 in the rankings.
“As everyone probably knows, I didn’t have the best season I wanted to have but I’m still top eight in the world and made London,” he noted. “A lot of people would dream of that, so being with these guys is an unbelievable honor and I wanted to come back here and give myself a chance to retain my title.”
“[In 2020] here will be unexpected results and some guys winning the bigger tournaments, which we haven’t seen for 10 to 15 years. The next two or three years will be very exciting as you’ll still have the Big 3–who are still consistently better than us; a true fact–and the young guys, who are improving quite quickly.”
The question for now is if one of the young guys can topple one of the Big 3 on Monday. A lot of it will come down to Nadal’s abdominal injury that forced him out of the Paris Masters a little more than a week ago. When healthy, of course, the world No. 1 has been outstanding. He is 51-6 this year and 14-0 since Wimbledon–all on hard courts.
Assuming Nadal is close to 100 percent, he should be able to battle his way to yet another victory over Zverev.
Pick: Nadal in 3
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Nadal Passes The Take-Out Exam
The world’s No. 1 will play the Nitto ATP Finals after recovering from their abdominal rectum injury
The litmus test arrived at one o’clock in the afternoon in London on the main training ground of the Nitto ATP Finals. There, and after 60 minutes playing with Roberto Bautista Agut, the first reserve of the competition, Rafael Nadal played a set against the Spaniard who won 7-6 (5). The result, however, was not the most important: the champion of 19 Grand Slam tournaments, which has never been able to conquer the event that brings together the eight best tennis players of the year, dared to take the step of taking out with total normality , thus completing the recovery that had been marked when injured in the abdominal rectum just over a week ago at the ATP Masters 1000 in Paris-Bercy.
“The progression we wanted was this,” Carlos Moyà, one of the world’s No. 1 technicians, told ATPTour.com on Sunday. “We wanted to try to do a training as if it were a game to enter the track on Monday with the confidence that he could get well. And we have achieved it, ”continued the Majorcan. “Today it has come close to its 100% with the service.”
https://www.atptour.com/es/news/nitto-a … adal-saque
Ricky, “Zverev butchered an easy backhand volley on match point that would have given him a win in their first-ever meeting at the 2016 Indian Wells Masters.”
This made me laugh. Basically, Zverev has an UE and lost the point; that’s all part of the scoring system. He didn’t get another opportunity. Nadal leads their h2h 5:0 so why is a missed MP by Zverev relevant? It happens all the time in tennis. Many players win matches after being down match points.
how is it not relevant?
by far the most important moment of their H2H history
Ricky, are you in London?
So I should expect match points missed quoted in any h2h.
Lief Shiras is calling the doubles match on Amazon Prime atm and the only thing he can say in Dodig’s favour is that he beat Nadal in Canada 8 years ago! Lol. He’s said it at least twice! Dodig is not playing Rafa and Rafa is not even in the doubles draw but that win has to be mentioned to give Dodig some kudos.
Having MP against Rafa is a big deal, but Dodig beating him once out of 4 meetings is an even bigger deal. 😉 Lol
He was maybe just highlighting Dodig was a very good singles player as well as doubles which is unusual these days.
A key moment in Zverevs career,certainly. In their H2H,maybe , because Nadal wasnt at this best back then.The real key moment in their H2H was the AO 2017 , they were both playing well.
It wasn’t the missed volley so much as AZ’s reaction. He was only 17 – it would have been a HUGE win for him. But he missed the easy volley and his game promptly went flat, lost speed on his strokes and Rafa is not the man you want to hand a second chance to. At the time I figured AZ was just young, but now I’m not so sure. Maybe he still finds it hard to forget/forgive his mistakes.
WWW?
I wish I had a reliable crystal ball.
Just bought my ticket for tomorrow.
Rafa looked much better in today’s practice. I hope another day’s rest proves to be even better and he is ready to battle it out.
I think rafa’s group is pretty tough. Zverev has really found his game since Laver Cup and he is the defending champion. If Rafa’s serve is as good as it was in Paris, I think he’ll squeeze this one out.
Medvedev is tough for anyone and it would be very interesting to see how he does against Rafa on indoor, lower bouncing conditions.
Tsitsipas has beaten Rafa once on clay and that was in Madrid. He is a smart player and even though his backhand is not as good as Thiem’s or Zverev’s, he has good variety and can he knows how to create his chances in the rallies.
I expect all of Rafa’s matches to be a battle but if he is fit, he has a good chance of winning all three.
At the moment, Novak is the favourite to end the year at no.1
I have my ticket for Rafa’s first match since yesterday when I was (almost) sure that they wouldn’t change the playing order (two years ago they did just that). Hopefully he won’t retire just before the match to help organizers sell more tickets. He played having much more serious trouble two years ago when he didn’t even have to. He probably wouldn’t go that far and post videos with him serving just to fool us though 🙂
Being the title holder can definitely help Zverev… choke. That’s what he does best when expectations for him are high.
Predicting the outcome of this match is more or less guessing Rafa’s physical condition. He may struggle serving because of the injury/lack of practice or have no trouble at all. If he can serve and play close to normal, Zverev is unlikely to take a set from him as we all know that Nadal is a terrific tiebreak player.
Rafa deserves a break from problems after so many setbacks this year (knee issues in the spring which affected him mentally, battling some virus at USO, hand injury at Laver cup, virus again then abdominal strain in Paris) and so many ATP finals that he couldn’t play at all or he entered exhausted/injured.
Ending this year as #1 and finally winning the season finale seems a very tall order for Nadal even if he is fully fit, given the conditions and the opponents. But I would love to see him doing just that.
Not sure if Zverev the minor, will ever be his confident younger self again. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Rafa in 2
I would think Rafa’s got this, but the abdominal injury is a question mark. If Rafa is okay and can serve well, he should get the win.
Fingers crossed! Rafa needs a big start.
Nadal in three
I see limited chances of Rafa being No.1.
Rafa needs to win all 3 RR matches and win semis to lock in No.1.
Djokovic is going to win this tourney with all 3 RR wins.
In this scenario even if Rafa makes it to finals with 2 RR wins, he will still lose the No.1 ranking.
Please correct me if I am wrong
Yes unless Novak loses a rr.
Why can’t Novak lose a rr. Just like fed lost to Thiem n Medvedev lost to tsitsi both straights n no one called it ..can’t djoko lose to Thiem or fed ..not impossible
Thiem has a decent shot.
Anything can happen but yes Djoko is fav to end at no.1.
Yes he is clear fav but not locked . An upset can happen. He can be beaten in semis too by say a Medvedev. Djoko is not an all out aggressor
This is not Rafa’s surface, this is not Rafa’s time of the year…Rafa struggles with injuries -always more injury prone at this time of the year..,he hates indoor event, only won two indoor events in his entire career and one of those was clay…Rafa is spent emotionally and physically ( but that USO title is worth every bit of it!!)
these go against Rafa’s chances…
So, que sera sera, whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours to see..,
I wish Rafa luck! I wish him to be healthy! And If he manages to keep No1 that’s great! If not, I wish he wins AO! He made us so proud this year already! Everything else is a bonus!
Vamos Champ!
Keep calm, stay focused, remain confident, be strong and enjoy the game, Rafa!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJHKAmXXsAA3_CX?format=jpg&name=medium
I repeat. 🙂
Keep calm, stay focused, remain confident, be strong and enjoy the game, Rafa!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJHKAmXXsAA3_CX?format=jpg&name=medium
I would dearly have loved to see Rafa get the YE #1. But this just is not his time of year. Court surface does not favor him, injuries have come up at the end of the year. So it is what it is. I am grateful that Rafa won two slams this year, after such a difficult time when he had to pull out of IW with a knee injury. We know how badly that affected him. He was very honest in sharing his despair.
I wish good health for Rafa. I hope he can compete well in London. He still has a chance for #1. But I really want him healthy and ready for the 2020 AO.
Agreed. Can’y wait to see him live and fist punmp his way to victory tonight. Let’s take it day by day and hope either Dom or Fed can beat Novak.
Nothing is certain at the moment.
Wow that is fun indeed! 😃 enjoy rafa live
Novak remaining undefeated this tourney is very likely “(obviously not a lock, but very likely). The one way Rafa gets to No.1 is if he reaches the finals undefeated. That has higher possibility than Novak losing a RR, IMHO.
One match at a time, though.
Rafa played a horrendous game to get broken. Heard to see him breaking zverev who is serving bombs.. zverevs serving level has to drop. He is just teeing off on rafas service games because of the confidence in his serve
Rafa is like a deer in the headlights in most points..
Zverev on fire today.. zverev’s last three victims at the tour finals.. the big 3.. zverevs only two top ten wins this year… roger and rafa😳
That pep talk at the laver cup has come back to bite Fedal😅
Hahaha exactly!
Indoor hard is a surface Rafa has always struggled on. Low bounce, fast court speed. Plus Zverev on fire
The way Rafa is playing now, it may turn out to be another 2009. Too bad, he always get himself into such conditions at end of seasons. His game is just not good enough to win indoors, when everyone is hitting flatter than him, serving bigger than him; don’t think there’s much he can do about that. Just hope that he doesn’t make things worse for himself now, if not it may boil over to the next season.
There’s still DC? I wonder whether he’s good enough to play. Maybe Djoko is right, the three of them may retire together. All three of them are injury stricken more and more often these days, not going to last much longer.
Rafa at his post-match press conference: “No pain in the abdominal. That’s the only postive. I wasn’t able to practice much since last Saturday. Hopefully I can practice a bit more…”
https://twitter.com/UcheAmako/status/1194010849427492865
It’s great news that he doesn’t have abdominal pain! 👍
Vamos Rafa!💪
Thanks for the quotes from Rafa. Very happy his ab isn’t bothering him. Yeah, I thought he looked rusty despite trying to practice as much as he could. Bad format for Rafa – no easy marks to work his way into the tournament. Of course gotta give credit to AZ – the kid was on fire for the first set.
Vamos Rafa!
Rafa’s doctor, Angel Ruiz Cotorro (Director of the Clinica del Tenis), stays optimistic after Rafa’s loss:
https://twitter.com/ClinicaTenis/status/1194011330195476480
👍 🙂
augusta,
Thanks for the updates!
😀
Rafa’s forehand was terrible today. He needs to practice a bit and hopefully he can get it all together by next match. I thought the serve was fine in the 2nd set.
Yeah two forehand winners in the match, that two on very easy shots.
Some thoughts watching it live:
Rafa didn’t seem to have any discomfort while serving and I thought he served okay for the most part. Sacha was reading Rafa’s serve pretty well and I was impressed with how clean the German was hitting. Watching it live, I can tell you that this surface does NOT benefit Rafa’s topspin as the ball just doesn’t kick enough.
You could tell that Rafa was under-confident probably because he has lacked practice in the last few days. He was hesitant on big points on his serve as well as the mini chances he had against Sacha.
I think he needed to hold his serve to bring the score to 4-4 or 5-5 and then use his superior mental strength to squeeze out the win.
Sacha served and hit too big for Rafa and it’s a shame the match was over so quickly. I think Rafa may not win a match this year if he not able to raise his level considerably.
So, if Thiem somehow beats Novak tomorrow, that’ll spice things up but otherwise, things are looking so much in the Serb’s favor.
The RR format of this tournament simply does not suit Rafa. I remember the first year it was played at the O2 areana Rafa bombed out in the first round, I recall him being interviewed by a young journalist as he left
the venue who asked ‘how his season had gone.
He replied ‘it had been a bit up and down’ then he paused for a moment and added with a wry smile ‘well ‘it had been mostly down’. You have to love him.
Rafa will improve/raise his level and win his next RR match v Medvedev. Rafa in 3 v Medvedev 🤞
I hope but I doubt. He is short on confidence . He really played poor today .was off
For Rafa’s own sake, he has to improve. He said he’s short of confidence and practice. I hope he can overcome all these, just go out there to play his game.
If he’s playing like how he played at Paris Masters, he shouldn’t have problems beating all his group members, but anything short, he’ll have problems beating them as all three of them come with big serves.