Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev will be going head-to-head for the fourth time in their careers and for the second straight year at the Nitto ATP Finals when they battle for a spot in the championship match on Saturday night.
Their round-robin showdown last fall was a memorable one, as Nadal stormed back from a 5-1 deficit in the third set to prevail 6-7(3), 6-3, 7-6(4)–although both men ended up missing out on a semifinal spot. That improved the Spaniard’s record against Medvedev to 3-0 lifetime. Their previous encounter was even more of a thriller. In a famous 2019 U.S. Open final, Nadal held off a furious charge by the Russian to triumph 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4.
“In tennis, at our level, if you lose from 5-1 and having a match point, there is no other word to describe it than ‘choke,'” Medvedev said when asked earlier this week about his London loss to Nadal. “You have to win the match, there is no other way around it. That was not the case and you cannot change the past, so you just have to learn from this match.”
The world No. 4 has clearly learned from last year’s performance inside the O2 Arena, where he went winless in round-robin competition. It also helps that this time around he did not play six consecutive finals during the stretch run of the season. Far more rested in 2020 than he was in 2019, Medvedev won the Paris Masters two weeks ago and so far in London he has erased both Diego Schwartzman and Novak Djokovic in straight sets.
Nadal was also outstanding in round-robin play. His only loss came against Dominic Thiem in what is the best match of the tournament to date. The world No. 2 also picked up wins over Andrey Rublev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, the latter via a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 decision in a winner-take-all battle on Thursday.
He will have to be just as good if not better against an in-form Medvedev.
“He’s playing amazing now,” Nadal said of the 24-year-old. “He played semifinals in New York and now winning in Paris and winning two matches here. Of course he has plenty of confidence and playing very, very high level. But we are in the semifinals of the World Tour Finals, so we can’t expect another story, no?”
But it could be a different story from their encounter last fall. Medvedev should have won even though he was in far worse shape than is at the moment. The Group A champion has been awesome this week and as good as Nadal has been it is no sure thing that the 34-year-old can play four great matches in a row on an indoor hard court.
Pick: Medvedev in 3
Rafa ..serve it out .strictly no drama
I am getting whiplash watching this match! Rafa wins the first set and then goes down
0-3 in the second set. Then he breaks back. Now he broke again to serve for the match!
Meddy was playing well, but Rafa brought his smarts and experience today.
This is something else! Please do it now Rafa!
Come on Rafa!
Damn! Come on rafa!focus!
What on earth was that rafa..r u kidding me..dropping serve to love
Come on rafa! Focus!
Now all we need is Rafa dropping serve again to lose the secodn and serve second in the third🙄🙄
Rafas body language is down
Tb ..will rafa prove us wrong by winning it
Oh good a tiebreak!😢
Needs to finish this in two and be frwsh for the final… vamos rafa
Damn it! These folks are now full of belief
Rafa had brain freeze in tb..had open court n hit fh right back to med
Don’t want to watch it now to be honest
Rafa definitely looking flat out there
Meddy seems destined to win this.. and avenge last years loss
Horror game from Rafa… bungled three serve and volleys in a single game
Rafa pay the price for playing stupid!
I am disappointed in how this has played out. Rafa keeps getting in his own way. He was serving for the match and let it get away from him.
Now he is down a break and running out of time. This has been ugly from Rafa.
Such a frustrating match by Rafa.. a match he should have won .. damn it
So the same two guys will be beating djokovic and rafa
The tournament lives up to its acronym for Rafa- Wtf..