Champion dethroned, Nadal in semi-finals in London: TennisKafe

11/20/2020 World



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Nitto ATP Finals, group stage

Rafael Nadal – Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 4-6, 6-2

Rafael Nadal won the direct clash with Stefanos Tsitsipas for a place in the semifinals in London and thus managed to dethrone the 2019 champion. The two played one of the best matches of the tournament so far, and after 2 hours and 4 minutes of tennis high quality, Nadal achieved success in three sets after 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

Thus, the Spanish will play for the sixth time in the semifinals of the tournament, continuing the search for the first title of the Finals. His opponent on Saturday will be the winner of the other group, Daniil Medvedev, against whom Matadora has three victories in three matches in 2019. Dominic Thiem expects the best of Friday’s clash between Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev.

After the Spaniard and Greek lost to Team in their previous matches and beat Andrei Rublev, on Thursday night there was no room for bills, because it was clear that only a win would mean moving on. And the level of tennis definitely suited the high stakes. The first two sets were resolved with a break at the end and the funny thing is that in both cases the server made a double mistake. The decisive part unfolded in a different setting, beginning with three consecutive advances, and with another after Nadal decided everything in the match. The Spaniard dominated in all components, ending the match with an impressive amount of unprovoked errors: 13 against 29 by Tsitsipas, and in the winning shots the World Cup №2 registered 32 against 23 by his opponent. For Tsitsipas, the consolation remains that due to the score change, he will keep the points he won in the tournament last year.

The match began with quick serve games, and Tsitsipas’ upcoming troubles pointed to the seventh game, in which he reflected the first two break balls of the match. On his next pass, however, Nadal had another chance to break through, and he realized after a double error from the Greek. Immediately after, Nadal took the pass and thus took the lead in the result after a set in which he gave up only 5 points to the return of the opponent and committed only four unprovoked errors.

In the second set Nadal continued to take his service games with great ease, and with Tsitsipas this was more difficult since in the first game he also reflected a breakball. However, the Greek reached 5-4, and from there came the first weak game of the Spanish. After a series of deep returns, the 2019 champion reached two set points at 15-40, with the second bringing him success after just the first double error in the entire match for the 20-time Grand Slam champion.

After a total of two advances in the two sets, we saw three in the first three games of the deciding part! Nadal tried it first after a series of unprovoked errors by his younger colleague, who nonetheless managed a rebreak with very aggressive play. Only to get another break in favor of Nadal, and at 0, he came after a brilliant smash with a 0-30 back and a beautifully placed defensive lobby on the line, after which Tsitsipas made a mistake.

This time the world2 world cup managed to break through, and with 4-2 he made a second advance, after which he had the opportunity to serve to win the match. The game was not easy to tie, but in his second game, with a great counterattack on the right, Nadal managed it.

nadal-tsitsipas

The situation in the groups after the end of “London 2020” and before the last two games in “Tokyo 1970”:

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