ATP Finals in Turin, Preliminary Round, Tuesday
The ATP Finals in Turin will see a clash between the two favourites Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev, who are seeded as number 2 and 3 respectively, on Tuesday afternoon.
The betting companies see the Russian as the favourite with odds of around 1.6, but the Olympic champion from Germany is certainly not without a chance.
This match was supposed to be the highlight of Tuesday evening, but the injury of Italy’s Matteo Berrettini disrupted the programme to some extent.
He had to retire from the match against Zverev at 7:6, 1:0 for the German due to a muscle injury.
On Monday evening, it was not yet clear whether he would be able to continue the tournament and play the next match against Hubert Hurkacz from Poland, which should have taken place on Tuesday afternoon.
To gain some time, the tournament organisers of the ATP Finals therefore unceremoniously scheduled the match between Medvedev and Zverev for 2 pm. Berrettini and Hurkacz are then scheduled to play each other at 9 p.m.
With Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev, the two top favourites in Group Red will now meet. They largely lived up to this role in their first matches.
However, both Medvedev and Zverev had some trouble in their opening match.
Zverev had to go into a tie break against Berrettini, which he narrowly won 9-7 before the Italian had to retire.
On the other hand, Medvedev also had to go into a tie break in his match against Hubert Hurkacz in the first set and even lost the set.
After that, however, the Russian was at his best and won the next two sets 6:3 and 6:4.
With this, Medvedev fulfilled the first requirement to successfully defend the title he won in London last year. He prevailed in the final 4:6, 7:6, 6:4 against the Austrian Dominic Thiem, who is absent this year due to injury.
This was Medvedev’s first major title win. His biggest success up to that point had been reaching the final of the 2019 US Open.
In the meantime, however, the Russian has also celebrated his first victory at a Grand Slam tournament. A few weeks ago, he beat world number one Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in the US Open final.
With this Grand Slam victory, Medvedev has something ahead of his opponent, because for Alexander Zverev, reaching the final at the US Open 2020 was the biggest success at a Grand Slam tournament so far.
However, the German recorded his career highlight so far this year by winning the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.
He also impressively proved that he is one of the best players in the world this year by reaching the semi-finals in Paris and New York.
Both players are 24 (Zverev) and 25 (Medvedev) years old and belong to the younger generation, but they are already number 3 and 2 in the world rankings and are well on the way to ending the dominance of players like Djokovic, Nadal and Federer.
If the results in direct duels are anything to go by, an exciting clash is to be expected. The head-to-head record is completely balanced.
Medvedev and Zverev have met 10 times so far and both have won five times each. However, the Russian has always been the winner in the last four duels.
In 2021, there were two encounters. At the ATP Cup in Australia, Medvedev won in three sets, at the ATP Masters 1000 in Paris, the Russian was successful in two sets.
The trend is clearly in Medvedev’s favour, but a clear result is not to be expected at the ATP Finals.
In this case, the tournament would not be over for the loser either. Both players have a good chance of reaching the semi-finals in first or second place. The winner of this duel would have the promotion as good as in the bag.
But I don’t want to commit myself to a winner.
My tip: We will see 3 sets between Medvedev and Zverev!
