ATP Finals: Defeating Tsitsipas, Nadal in the semi-finals

Rafael Nadal and Stefanos Tsitsipas enter the final match of the ATP Finals group stage with no position behind, the winner will enter the semi-finals and the loser will definitely leave. That means defending champion Tsitsipas will either become the former king or Nadal’s dream of winning the championship will remain unfinished.

Results Nadal won 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 after 2 hours and 06 minutes. The Spaniard won because he played better than the defending champion overall. All the statistics show Nadal’s superiority, he has 30 winners and only 12 times of self-destructive errors, while Tsitsipas has only 24 winners and up to 21 self-harm errors.

Throughout the game, Nadal played more stable than Tsitsipas, because in a few moments he lost concentration so Nadal had to play with the maximum number of sets. The Spaniard made it difficult for the rival to play with left pressure, while Tsitsipas’s ball was not good, there were many unfortunate blows and a large number of errors that contributed to the player’s drive. Greece came to failure.

Going into the deciding match for the second berth to the Group B semi-finals, Tsitsipas served first, started smoothly with quick wins, Nadal was also consistently close to quick winning serve games.

Tsitsipas showed a mismatch in game 7, faced two break points, although the Greek player successfully saved the game. The turning point of the first set came in game 9, Nadal broke the game to take a 5-4 lead. The Spanish did not miss his chance to win, he put the score at 6-4 after 41 minutes of play.

Difficulties continued to surround Tsitsipas as he entered the second set, he had to save a break point to successfully defend the game. However, after that, the Greek player played with better rhythm and kept making his way. Nadal continues to chase fiercely, in the first three games holding serve in the second set, the Spaniard only lost one point.

However, it happened unexpectedly in game 10, Tsitsipas guessed to catch the opponent’s ball and got a strong counter attack to win two set points. Nadal played actively to save the first set point, but then made a double mistake, the first double error of the Spaniard in this match made him give the victory to his rival. Tsitsipas won 6-4, averaged 1-1 and two players had to play the deciding set.

Tsitsipas continued to serve first, the Greek player was precarious, so he was not good on his scoreboard, he let Nadal break the game after taking a strong forehand shot to get the ball out.

Unfortunately, Nadal couldn’t break through when Tsitsipas was very good at defusing the left hand grips in game 2. The No. 2 seed gave the opponent two break points after a tire off the ball, then hit the ball over the net and Tsitsipas asked to break successfully.

Tsitsipas could not get back up after losing Game 3 with the right to serve. He started Game 4 with a lot of pressure, especially after letting the opponent lead 30-0, but Nadal won four points in a row to successfully defend the game, increasing the score to 3-1.

Stability is what Tsitsipas lacks completely. The Greek player kept hitting for Nadal to win Game 6, with three shots in Game 7, Tsitsipas made a major contribution for Nadal to break the game to a 5-2 lead. Possibility of winning the open match with Nadal, he scored a 6-2 battle to close the game with a 2-1 victory.

In the remaining Group B match, Andrey Rublev ended his ATP Finals journey with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Dominic Thiem. The Austrian player soon won a ticket to the semi-finals after the second game so this loss did not affect him, but losing 0-2 in the last match of the group stage saw Thiem fall to No. two after Nadal.

Alluvial