By Seth Gellman
When draws were released on Thursday, November 12th, fans were excited for a clash between young stars and old talent. The last four winners were first time champions, and young stars Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Alexander Zverev, and defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas were set to compete. On the other hand, 20-time grand slam champion Rafael Nadal was seeking his first ATP Finals trophy. Nadal’s closest attempts were in 2010 and 2013, when he lost to Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the final, respectively. As well as Nadal, 17-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic was seeking his record equaling 6th ATP Finals victory (won 2008, 2012-2015), which would tie Roger Federer. Dominic Thiem, the 2019 finalist, was coming off a first grand slam at the US Open and final performance at the Australian Open in January. Diego Schwartzman was coming off a big year for the Argentine, including a final (l. Djokovic) at the Rome Masters and a semifinal at the French Open (l. Nadal). Roger Federer, ranked 4th, did not participate because he is recovering from a knee surgery.
In the tournament leading up to the Nitto ATP Finals, the Paris Masters, Daniil Medvedev, then 5th in the world, defeated World No. 7 Alexander Zverev, the young sensation who has been a fixture in the top 10 since July of 2017, in the final. At the ATP Finals, the only round robin tournament of the year, there are two groups of four players. Players compete for the top two spots in their group to enter the semifinals. In the semifinals, the top seed from each group plays the second seed from the other group. Then the winners of the semifinals face in the final, and the winner (if a first time champion) earns himself an exclusive position as only one of 25 men that have won the tournament.
In honor for the 50th edition of the tournament, the two groups were Group Tokyo 1970 and Group London 2020. The members of Group Tokyo 1970 were World No. 1 and top seed Novak Djokovic, 4th seed Daniil Medvedev, 5th seed Alexander Zverev, and 8th seed Diego Schwartzman. Group London 2020 consisted of 2nd seed Rafael Nadal, 3rd seed Dominic Thiem, 6th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, and 7th seed Andrey Rublev.
Djokovic entered the tournament with an impressive 39-4 record on the season. He won the Australian Open in January and reached the French Open final. Daniil Medvedev had a poor season for a player of his caliber but was coming in red hot form after he won the Paris Masters earlier in the month. Alexander Zverev had an impressive year, with a semifinal performance at the Australian Open (l. Thiem) and his first major final at the US Open (l. Thiem). This was Rublev’s debut at the tournament, and he was looking to impress. Entering the tournament, Rublev had won a tour-leading 40 wins and 5 tournaments under his belt in 2020.
In Group London 2020, Nadal was coming into the tournament after winning his 13th French Open title a few months prior, a truly mind blowing achievement. Thiem had plenty of confidence after reaching the Australian Open final (l. Djokovic) and winning the US Open, as well as passing Roger Federer in the rankings to reach #3 in the world. Tsitsipas, who has had injury problems for part of the year, had several highlights this season, but his fighting spirit against Novak Djokovic stands out as the most impressive, where he pushed the World No. 1 to five sets. Schwartzman, whose best surface is clay, had an impressive season that included beating Nadal on clay in Rome and defeating Thiem in five sets to reach the French Open semifinal.
There were many phenomenal round robin matches in the tournament, but the two that stood out the most both involved one player, Dominic Thiem. Dominic Thiem vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas and Thiem vs. Rafael Nadal were the most thrilling matches of the round robin stage. The second match of the tournament, Thiem vs. Tsitsipas was a rematch of last year’s final. Despite losing last year, Thiem got revenge this year with a 7-6 (5) 4-6 6-3 win. After narrowly losing a first set tiebreak, Tsitsipas took advantage of a few forehand errors from the Austrian and earned the first break of the match. He held serve to force a decider. However, Thiem held his nerve, and returned well to race to a 3-0 lead in the third set. Thiem held his serve to close out the match.
One of the highlights of the tournament, and the year, was Thiem vs. Nadal. A storied rivalry, their first match was at Nadal’s beloved French Open in 2014, a tournament where they would meet three more times, one at the semifinal level and in two finals. Thiem, originally a clay court specialist, has met Nadal on clay for 12 of the last 14 matches in their rivalry, with the exceptions being at the 2018 US Open quarterfinal and the 2020 Australian Open quarterfinal, with Nadal prevailing in 2018 but Thiem got his revenge at the Australian Open of this year. Thiem has beaten Nadal once every year on clay from 2016-2019, causing many people to give him the title ‘Prince of Clay’ in reference to Nadal’s nickname ‘The King of Clay’ because of his impressive achievements on the surface.
Thiem employed an interesting tactic against his rival at the O2 in London, where the Nitto ATP Finals are held. He ruthlessly attacked Nadal’s backhand, but deviated from this tactic in some of the crucial moments of the match. Thiem won a tight 7-6 (7) 7-6 (4) match against the all time great. Thiem hit 68% of his forehands to the deuce side, where lefty Nadal would more than likely be hitting his backhand from. After going down 2/5 in the first set tiebreak, Thiem knew that he had to surprise Nadal. Thiem then hit three inside out forehands to catch the Spaniard off guard and take the set. Facing set point at 6/7, Thiem fired his forehand down the line and Nadal retrieved it but had to sprint to the deuce side to cover his backhand, opening up the court for a forehand winner behind Nadal. Thiem unloaded an inside-out forehand before firing an inside-in winner to take the set. Nadal employed a similar strategy against Thiem, hitting 68% of his forehand to the ad side, where Thiem would likely be hitting a backhand. Thiem continued to fire at Nadal’s backhand and played a stellar tiebreak to secure his spot in the semifinals.
After Djokovic defeated Zverev in the second last match of the round robin stage, the semifinals were decided. In the first semifinal, Thiem would play Djokovic, a rematch from last year’s round robin, and Nadal vs. Medvedev, another rematch from last year’s round robin where Nadal had saved a match point and recovered from being down 1-5 in the final set.
Dominic Thiem was seeking his 300th tour level win against Novak Djokovic, and boy did he have to work for it. The first set was very close, with no break points for either player in the first ten games. At 5-5, however, Thiem forced a volley error from Djokovic to seal the first, and only, break of the match. Thiem held serve to clinch the first set. In the second set, Thiem had to save break points at 3-4 and 5-6 with big serves, and send the set into a tiebreak. Thiem was on the brink of victory, holding four match points, but he could not convert any opportunities. Djokovic played with precision, hitting a well-placed serve out wide at 5/6 and hit a forehand winner down the line to escape the fourth match point at 9/10. On Thiem’s serve, Thiem had two match points, at 7/6, in which he double faulted, and at 9/8, where Djokovic forced a forehand error into the alley. After Thiem hit a backhand into the net, Djokovic secured the second set. Despite losing the second set in devastating fashion, Thiem showed no signs of disappointment as he came out in the second set firing. Both held serve until a final set tiebreak. A few errors from Thiem at the beginning of the tiebreak put Djokovic up 4/0. That only motivated Thiem, however, as he played with precise aggression and won six of the next seven points and won the match 7-5 6-7 (10) 7-6 (5). Djokovic congratulated his opponent after the match, saying “I have to put my hats down and say, congratulations. I actually didn’t play bad any point after 4/0.”
The second semifinal didn’t disappoint either. After being up 5-1 40/30 in the third set last year and failing to finish the job, some thought that Medvedev may be nervous. He proved them wrong. Medvedev started the match off by hitting 16 consecutive first serves and earning three break points in Nadal’s second service game. The seventh game of the set proved decisive, with Medvedev missing all four first serves and getting broken at love. Nadal won the next two games to seal the set 6-3. Nadal played an uncharacteristic poor service game to start the second set, and double faulted on break point. Medvedev couldn’t hold the advantage for long, and lost 3 straight games to let Nadal serve for the match. The Russian raised his game for the occasion, and broke at love by putting pressure on Nadal’s increasingly unstable game. Medvedev played a solid third set, and broke at 3-3 and 5-3 to win the match 3-6 7-6 (4) 6-3 and end Nadal’s 71 match winning streak when winning the first set. After the match, Nadal said “At the end of the [second] set I was playing a little bit better than him, and then in the 5-4 [game] I think he played a good game and I didn’t. I played a bad game. That’s it.”
Entering the Final, both players could not have been playing better. Thiem had earlier said that he was playing a higher level than that of his US Open run, and Medvedev was on a 9 match winning streak that included six straight wins against top 10 players. Thiem was looking to get across the finish line after losing a close final to Tsitsipas last year. Medvedev was seeking a first Nitto ATP Finals title and to become the first man since David Nalbandian in 2007 to defeat the top three seeds en route to a title.
Thiem started off the match well, staving off the first eight break points that he faced. Thiem tried to use his backhand slice to give Medvedev no pace to work with, the same strategy that Nadal employed, but Medvedev took the opportunities to attack and go to net. Thiem would take the first set without being broken. The deciding set looked much of the same, with neither giving up much on serve, until 3-3 30/40 on the Russian’s serve. After missing a first serve, Medvedev decided to serve and volley on his second serve, a risky play. Thiem ran around his backhand to return the ball, and hit it full force down the line. Medvedev barely reached it and hit a loopy drop volley over the net that Thiem sprinted up to reach. Thiem had the whole ad court open, but pushed it wide. That point would become crucial, as the Russian started to play better and Thiem started to become more erratic. They both held until the tiebreak, where Medvedev dominated. Medvedev only needed one break at 2-2 to hold his serve until sealing it with a flat serve out wide, 4-6 7-6 (2) 6-4.
A fitting tournament to end the year, as the Next-Gen have finally dominated the year end championship, and seem to be overcoming Djokovic and Nadal. The next stop: Slams. Young stars have proven time and time again that they have what it takes to overtake the Big Three in Best of 3 sets, but what many are asking is “Do they have what it takes to do it in best of 5?” It’s a valid question, and one that has had irregular results. Thiem is the only one with consistent showing at slams in recent years on hard court and clay. Thiem’s breakthrough at the US Open is the biggest highlight of his career and there’s only better things waiting for him in the future. Medvedev, on the other hand, showed outstanding tennis in his last two tournaments after a subpar season with many early losses. If he can translate his game more effectively to the slam level, he could be a true contender for years to come.
Source: REUTERS/Toby Melville
When draws were released on Thursday, November 12th, fans were excited for a clash between young stars and old talent. The last four winners were first time champions, and young stars Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Alexander Zverev, and defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas were set to compete. On the other hand, 20-time grand slam champion Rafael Nadal was seeking his first ATP Finals trophy. Nadal’s closest attempts were in 2010 and 2013, when he lost to Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the final, respectively. As well as Nadal, 17-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic was seeking his record equaling 6th ATP Finals victory (won 2008, 2012-2015), which would tie Roger Federer. Dominic Thiem, the 2019 finalist, was coming off a first grand slam at the US Open and final performance at the Australian Open in January. Diego Schwartzman was coming off a big year for the Argentine, including a final (l. Djokovic) at the Rome Masters and a semifinal at the French Open (l. Nadal). Roger Federer, ranked 4th, did not participate because he is recovering from a knee surgery.
In the tournament leading up to the Nitto ATP Finals, the Paris Masters, Daniil Medvedev, then 5th in the world, defeated World No. 7 Alexander Zverev, the young sensation who has been a fixture in the top 10 since July of 2017, in the final. At the ATP Finals, the only round robin tournament of the year, there are two groups of four players. Players compete for the top two spots in their group to enter the semifinals. In the semifinals, the top seed from each group plays the second seed from the other group. Then the winners of the semifinals face in the final, and the winner (if a first time champion) earns himself an exclusive position as only one of 25 men that have won the tournament.
In honor for the 50th edition of the tournament, the two groups were Group Tokyo 1970 and Group London 2020. The members of Group Tokyo 1970 were World No. 1 and top seed Novak Djokovic, 4th seed Daniil Medvedev, 5th seed Alexander Zverev, and 8th seed Diego Schwartzman. Group London 2020 consisted of 2nd seed Rafael Nadal, 3rd seed Dominic Thiem, 6th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, and 7th seed Andrey Rublev.
Djokovic entered the tournament with an impressive 39-4 record on the season. He won the Australian Open in January and reached the French Open final. Daniil Medvedev had a poor season for a player of his caliber but was coming in red hot form after he won the Paris Masters earlier in the month. Alexander Zverev had an impressive year, with a semifinal performance at the Australian Open (l. Thiem) and his first major final at the US Open (l. Thiem). This was Rublev’s debut at the tournament, and he was looking to impress. Entering the tournament, Rublev had won a tour-leading 40 wins and 5 tournaments under his belt in 2020.
In Group London 2020, Nadal was coming into the tournament after winning his 13th French Open title a few months prior, a truly mind blowing achievement. Thiem had plenty of confidence after reaching the Australian Open final (l. Djokovic) and winning the US Open, as well as passing Roger Federer in the rankings to reach #3 in the world. Tsitsipas, who has had injury problems for part of the year, had several highlights this season, but his fighting spirit against Novak Djokovic stands out as the most impressive, where he pushed the World No. 1 to five sets. Schwartzman, whose best surface is clay, had an impressive season that included beating Nadal on clay in Rome and defeating Thiem in five sets to reach the French Open semifinal.
There were many phenomenal round robin matches in the tournament, but the two that stood out the most both involved one player, Dominic Thiem. Dominic Thiem vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas and Thiem vs. Rafael Nadal were the most thrilling matches of the round robin stage. The second match of the tournament, Thiem vs. Tsitsipas was a rematch of last year’s final. Despite losing last year, Thiem got revenge this year with a 7-6 (5) 4-6 6-3 win. After narrowly losing a first set tiebreak, Tsitsipas took advantage of a few forehand errors from the Austrian and earned the first break of the match. He held serve to force a decider. However, Thiem held his nerve, and returned well to race to a 3-0 lead in the third set. Thiem held his serve to close out the match.
One of the highlights of the tournament, and the year, was Thiem vs. Nadal. A storied rivalry, their first match was at Nadal’s beloved French Open in 2014, a tournament where they would meet three more times, one at the semifinal level and in two finals. Thiem, originally a clay court specialist, has met Nadal on clay for 12 of the last 14 matches in their rivalry, with the exceptions being at the 2018 US Open quarterfinal and the 2020 Australian Open quarterfinal, with Nadal prevailing in 2018 but Thiem got his revenge at the Australian Open of this year. Thiem has beaten Nadal once every year on clay from 2016-2019, causing many people to give him the title ‘Prince of Clay’ in reference to Nadal’s nickname ‘The King of Clay’ because of his impressive achievements on the surface.
Thiem employed an interesting tactic against his rival at the O2 in London, where the Nitto ATP Finals are held. He ruthlessly attacked Nadal’s backhand, but deviated from this tactic in some of the crucial moments of the match. Thiem won a tight 7-6 (7) 7-6 (4) match against the all time great. Thiem hit 68% of his forehands to the deuce side, where lefty Nadal would more than likely be hitting his backhand from. After going down 2/5 in the first set tiebreak, Thiem knew that he had to surprise Nadal. Thiem then hit three inside out forehands to catch the Spaniard off guard and take the set. Facing set point at 6/7, Thiem fired his forehand down the line and Nadal retrieved it but had to sprint to the deuce side to cover his backhand, opening up the court for a forehand winner behind Nadal. Thiem unloaded an inside-out forehand before firing an inside-in winner to take the set. Nadal employed a similar strategy against Thiem, hitting 68% of his forehand to the ad side, where Thiem would likely be hitting a backhand. Thiem continued to fire at Nadal’s backhand and played a stellar tiebreak to secure his spot in the semifinals.
After Djokovic defeated Zverev in the second last match of the round robin stage, the semifinals were decided. In the first semifinal, Thiem would play Djokovic, a rematch from last year’s round robin, and Nadal vs. Medvedev, another rematch from last year’s round robin where Nadal had saved a match point and recovered from being down 1-5 in the final set.
Dominic Thiem was seeking his 300th tour level win against Novak Djokovic, and boy did he have to work for it. The first set was very close, with no break points for either player in the first ten games. At 5-5, however, Thiem forced a volley error from Djokovic to seal the first, and only, break of the match. Thiem held serve to clinch the first set. In the second set, Thiem had to save break points at 3-4 and 5-6 with big serves, and send the set into a tiebreak. Thiem was on the brink of victory, holding four match points, but he could not convert any opportunities. Djokovic played with precision, hitting a well-placed serve out wide at 5/6 and hit a forehand winner down the line to escape the fourth match point at 9/10. On Thiem’s serve, Thiem had two match points, at 7/6, in which he double faulted, and at 9/8, where Djokovic forced a forehand error into the alley. After Thiem hit a backhand into the net, Djokovic secured the second set. Despite losing the second set in devastating fashion, Thiem showed no signs of disappointment as he came out in the second set firing. Both held serve until a final set tiebreak. A few errors from Thiem at the beginning of the tiebreak put Djokovic up 4/0. That only motivated Thiem, however, as he played with precise aggression and won six of the next seven points and won the match 7-5 6-7 (10) 7-6 (5). Djokovic congratulated his opponent after the match, saying “I have to put my hats down and say, congratulations. I actually didn’t play bad any point after 4/0.”
The second semifinal didn’t disappoint either. After being up 5-1 40/30 in the third set last year and failing to finish the job, some thought that Medvedev may be nervous. He proved them wrong. Medvedev started the match off by hitting 16 consecutive first serves and earning three break points in Nadal’s second service game. The seventh game of the set proved decisive, with Medvedev missing all four first serves and getting broken at love. Nadal won the next two games to seal the set 6-3. Nadal played an uncharacteristic poor service game to start the second set, and double faulted on break point. Medvedev couldn’t hold the advantage for long, and lost 3 straight games to let Nadal serve for the match. The Russian raised his game for the occasion, and broke at love by putting pressure on Nadal’s increasingly unstable game. Medvedev played a solid third set, and broke at 3-3 and 5-3 to win the match 3-6 7-6 (4) 6-3 and end Nadal’s 71 match winning streak when winning the first set. After the match, Nadal said “At the end of the [second] set I was playing a little bit better than him, and then in the 5-4 [game] I think he played a good game and I didn’t. I played a bad game. That’s it.”
Entering the Final, both players could not have been playing better. Thiem had earlier said that he was playing a higher level than that of his US Open run, and Medvedev was on a 9 match winning streak that included six straight wins against top 10 players. Thiem was looking to get across the finish line after losing a close final to Tsitsipas last year. Medvedev was seeking a first Nitto ATP Finals title and to become the first man since David Nalbandian in 2007 to defeat the top three seeds en route to a title.
Thiem started off the match well, staving off the first eight break points that he faced. Thiem tried to use his backhand slice to give Medvedev no pace to work with, the same strategy that Nadal employed, but Medvedev took the opportunities to attack and go to net. Thiem would take the first set without being broken. The deciding set looked much of the same, with neither giving up much on serve, until 3-3 30/40 on the Russian’s serve. After missing a first serve, Medvedev decided to serve and volley on his second serve, a risky play. Thiem ran around his backhand to return the ball, and hit it full force down the line. Medvedev barely reached it and hit a loopy drop volley over the net that Thiem sprinted up to reach. Thiem had the whole ad court open, but pushed it wide. That point would become crucial, as the Russian started to play better and Thiem started to become more erratic. They both held until the tiebreak, where Medvedev dominated. Medvedev only needed one break at 2-2 to hold his serve until sealing it with a flat serve out wide, 4-6 7-6 (2) 6-4.
A fitting tournament to end the year, as the Next-Gen have finally dominated the year end championship, and seem to be overcoming Djokovic and Nadal. The next stop: Slams. Young stars have proven time and time again that they have what it takes to overtake the Big Three in Best of 3 sets, but what many are asking is “Do they have what it takes to do it in best of 5?” It’s a valid question, and one that has had irregular results. Thiem is the only one with consistent showing at slams in recent years on hard court and clay. Thiem’s breakthrough at the US Open is the biggest highlight of his career and there’s only better things waiting for him in the future. Medvedev, on the other hand, showed outstanding tennis in his last two tournaments after a subpar season with many early losses. If he can translate his game more effectively to the slam level, he could be a true contender for years to come.
