Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem will be battling for Group B supremacy at the Nitto ATP Finals when they headline the afternoon session on Tuesday.
The two most recent Grand Slam champions kicked off their respective London campaigns in style on Sunday. Thiem opened with a 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3 victory over defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, while Nadal took care of year-end championship debutant Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-4.
This round-robin winners’ match marks the 15th career contest between Nadal and Thiem, with the Spaniard leading the head-to-head series 9-5. Not too surprisingly, a whopping 12 of their 14 previous meetings have come on clay. However, Thiem has improved dramatically on hard courts of late and as a result he went up against Nadal deep into the fortnight at hard-court slams twice in the past three seasons. The current world No. 2 survived 0-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-7(4), 7-6(5) in the 2018 U.S. Open quarterfinals, while the Austrian prevailed 7-6(3), 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(6) at the same stage of this year’s Australian Open.
Thiem eventually finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic Down Under (lost in five sets) but finally captured his first slam title at this summer’s U.S. Open (beat Alexander Zverev in a fifth-set tiebreaker). The world No. 3 somewhat understandably has not done much since then, but he is well-rested for London and that has already paid off in the form of his victory over Tsitsipas.
The same can be said of Nadal, who won the French Open for the 13th time in his illustrious career and then took some time off until the next Parisian event indoors in Bercy. He advanced to the semifinals but lost to Zverev in straight sets. Nadal has still never won the Paris Masters, nor has he ever lifted the trophy at the Nitto ATP Finals.
With Nadal never at his best inside the O2 Arena, this is a good opportunity for Thiem to start 2-0 in London for a second straight year.
Pick: Thiem in 3
Thiem is become a real trouble for the big 3..has beaten all now in many key matches
Damn it! Once again rafa reliquishes the lead after taking it
Rafa gets broken back. This is maddening.
Great! Now even if he qualifies he will have Nole to pour cold water over his o2 ambitions
Horrible game from rafa!
Wtf is this last game.. three stupid errors
Omg how the hell did Rafa pull it out🧐 after those three schoolboy errors
good God! Finally Rafa really goes for it and saves 3 match points. Now carry on like that Rafa!
Another tb in the offing? The law of averages should finally catch up
Not the law of Rafa averages I hope! Ie Rafa losing..
Gonna start praying..🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Good God! Another tb! 😱
Well Dom definitely deserved to win the second set!
I really don’t enjoy the wtf!
Rafa did play very well in the first set which he should have won. Once he lost that I thought he would lose.
Same here…Disappointed after Rafa gave his break back in the 2nd set…both playing great the first set, Rafa should have won in the TB and failed after 5:2 lead…
Congrats to Dominik,well deserved win…
We both said after the Rg final that we didn’t want him to play Paris and wtf Natashao.
It’s not good for his confidence…
Exactly, amy! I still think he should have enjoyed this time with his family and friends and prepare for the AO! He never fancied indoor season why would it be any different this year with all the pressure of the pandemic..
Well it does worry me he will lose confidence again Natashao!
However others are putting up a good argument that he needs match play…
Don’t know what to think…😕😕
Listen to him..he said he played well n should have played most imp points better. Said he is better this week than Paris
Sorry,thats not logical, he was in great form at RG, Nole was likely to suffer lack of confidence after that ,it seemed Rafas best chance in years to win Paris/YEC esp. with Fed not there.
Why wouldn’t he play with such a long break before the AO ? Just because he was afraid of losing? Sorry if it sounds like Im bashing Nadal, Im not ,you’re pampering him.
Damn. I doubt he will now reach the semis (;-
He beat Stefanos last year playing g superb tennis.
He wasn’t really making his shots in the second set.
Nadal still 0 titles at WTF.
The tournament finishes on 22/11.
So now what are permutations for rafa to win ?
Dom beat Nole last year remember.
But Rafa went into his shell in the second set.
He beat both fed n nole
If tsitsi beats rublev..then rafa tsitsi will be a straight shootout…
If rublev beats tsitsi..then how will it play out ? If rafa beata tsitsi n rublev beats thiem..will rafa still qualify as rafa beat rublev or will the sets etc come into play
Anyone have answer to this ? Ricky ?
sets tiebreaker
sets
Then rafa needs to beat tsiti in straights n thiem not lose to rublev like he lost to berretini last year
I did say after RG that I hoped he wouldn’t play Paris and wtf.
I wanted him to take the confidence of that win into the AO not squander it by getting beaten by numerous players at the end of the year.
Rafa just let this get away from him. He was in control in the first set tb. He had two set points. He was up a break in the second set. It’s like he lost the match before he ever got on the court.
Well I keep saying that I didn’t want him to play nny! I feared this would happen..
No amy..he needs to play..he will then come cold at ao..losses at wtf have rarely affected his play next year
You think sanju?!
It’s true that best of 5 and slams makes him more confident not less…
What I don’t want is for Rafa to lose the #2 ranking to evil Dom..😀
I have to agree with Sanju here, I have said that I don’t want Rafa coming in undercooked at the AO. He has played very little this year, so I think he should have more match play. I don’t think there will be any real damage if Rafa does not do well here. It’s not like he has had a lot of success here.
I think Rafa needed to play more. I just wish he could have had better results because at least he is healthy.
Ok nny! It’s true that he needed match play.
I will defer to you and sanju!😀😀
amy,
😉👍
I agree NNY, Nadal not doing well here is nothing new. But he must play these tournaments. He can’t afford to come to the Australian open undercooked.
Dom did play fab tennis in the second set..congrats to him..but Rafa gave him the opening by messing up a tb he was in control of..then he lost belief…