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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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.