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Novak Djokovic can’t catch up with Roger Federer just yet when it comes to the ATP Finals title. Image: keystone
Nadal has to wait for first Masters win – Djokovic also fails
Rafael Nadal has to wait for his first title in the ATP Finals. He lost in the semifinals against Daniil Medvedev. In the final, the Russian faces Dominic Thiem, who knocks down Novak Djokovic.
The ATP Finals, the Masters of the eight best players of the year, are the last major title still missing from Rafael Nadal’s Palmarès. This year, cooler after a shortened season due to the coronavirus pandemic and without record winner Roger Federer, the possibility seemed greater than ever. In the empty London O2 stadium, however, someone had something against him: Daniil Medvedev.
Nadal regained a 1: 4 deficit in the second set and served in 5: 4 to reach the final. It would have been his third after 2010 and 2013 (losses to Federer and Novak Djokovic). Medvedev, who had already won all three group matches, changed course and finally won against the physically weakened Spaniard after 2:36 hours 3: 6, 7: 6 (7: 4), 6: 3.
After Andy Murray, Grigor Dimitrov, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, a non-Big 3 player will win his first Masters title on Sunday night for the fifth year in a row, because Novak Djokovic also failed in the other semi-finals.
The world number 1 was defeated by the Austrian Dominic Thiem in almost three hours 5: 7, 7: 6 (12:10), 6: 7 (5: 7) and thus failed to catch up with Federer with his sixth title. After he could still hope to finish the year undefeated until his disqualification from the US Open, he lost four more times in his last four tournaments of the year.
Thiem showed great nervousness and perseverance in London. The US Open champion and last year’s finalist already had four match points in the second set and won the decisive tiebreaker after falling 4-0.
Thiem, 27, won three of four games against Medvedev, who was three years his junior, most recently in the US Open semifinals. There has never been an Austrian Masters winner, the only Russian so far was Nikolai Dawydenko in 2009. (jaw / pre / sda)
