After a subdued tennis season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the men’s tennis season is about to culminate with the annual ATP Finals in London. The season-ending ATP Finals will kick-off tomorrow and is scheduled from November 15-22, 2020. All the matches will be played without any audience in attendance. As with every year, the finest singles and doubles players will vie for the trophy in a round-robin format followed by the semi-finals and final.
This will be the 51st edition of the ATP Finals (46th in doubles), which was first played in 1970 in Tokyo, where Stan Smith triumphed. It is the tournament’s 12th and final edition at the O2 Arena in London. Next year, it moves to Turin, Italy.
Who are playing?
This year’s qualification is based on the ATP Rankings instead of ‘Race to London’ ranking due to a coronavirus-impacted season.
Group Tokyo 1970:
World No 1 and Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, Diego Schwartzman
Group London 2020:
French Open champion Rafael Nadal, US Open champion Dominic Thiem, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Andrey Rublev
Tsitsipas comes in as the defending champion after beating Thiem in the final last year.
Djokovic, the World No 1, is looking to win a record-tying 6th ATP Finals and first time since 2015. He triumphed at the event in 2008 and 2012-15.
Nadal, who has qualified for the ATP Finals for the 16th consecutive year, has surprisingly never won the indoor hardcourt event.
The eight singles players are divided into two four-player groups: Group Tokyo 1970 and Group London 2020. Each player faces the other group member once and the top two from each group advance to the semi-finals.
Standings are decided by the number of wins. If there is a tie, then the player which has won the greater number of matches played, followed by head-to-head. If three players are tied with one win each, then the player who has played the least matches is automatically eliminated. The tie-break from the other two is broken on head-to-head record. If that fails, too, then it comes down to the highest percentage of sets won or games won.
Let’s share and discuss the day by day results and information on this thread.
The 2020 ATP Finals, for the first time in tournament’s history, will feature electronic line-calling and video review. The lines will be called electronically by hawk-eye live as there won’t be line judges this year amid the Covid-19 pandemic and a chair umpire will oversee the action.
Ranked No. 8 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, Rublev, the 23-year-old Russian would appear to be an underdog against Nadal, a tennis goliath who recently notched his 1,000th career win at the Rolex Paris Masters. He charges into the event with a burst of momentum after racking up a 40-8 record on the Tour this season with five titles, including wins in Doha, Adelaide, Hamburg, St. Petersburg, and Vienna.
Nadal and Rublev have squared off just once before—a three set demolition derby for the Mallorcan at the US Open in 2017. But Rublev version 2020 isn’t the same product as Rublev 2017, and indoor courts are Nadal’s least favourite stomping grounds. The Clay King has never won the Nitto ATP Finals and has taken just two career titles indoors.
Novak Djokovic was on Sunday given the ATP Tour No. 1 trophy for finishing as the year-end No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Rankings for a record-equalling 6th time in the past 10 years (having earlier done it in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2018).
Among past players, only Pete Sampras has managed to finish six years on top of the rankings which he did between 1993 and 1998.
Djokovic had a stellar season capturing four titles and compiling a 39-3 match record. Djokovic lifted an eighth Australian Open trophy (d. Thiem) in January, two ATP Masters 1000s at the Western & Southern Open (d. Raonic) and the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome (d. Schwartzman), plus the ATP 500-level Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (d. Tsitsipas).
Diego and Novak have never squared off on an indoor court before.
It’s been a year of firsts for the Argentine. He’s notched his first Top 5 win, his first ATP Masters 1000 final, first major semi-final appearance, and made his debut in the Top 10, among other accomplishments. But beating six-time ATP Finals champ Novak Djokovic would be his most impressive first of the season. The Serb has been lethal at the event, racking up a 36-14 career record over 13 appearances with titles in 2008 and 2012-2015.
Preview: Medvedev v Zverev
Zverev holds a 5-2 ATP Head2Head edge in their rivalry, but the Russian has taken two of the past three encounters. Zverev has played in the Nitto ATP Finals four times, compiling a 7-5 record while winning the event in 2018, when he beat Roger Federer. Last season, Sascha lost in the semi-finals of the event to Dominic Thiem.
Medvedev qualified for the first time last year and went 0-3, though he held a match point against Rafael Nadal.
The players have a lot in common. Born 10 months apart, they’re both right-handers with two-handed backhands who stand 6’6” (198 cm) and live in Monaco. Both have Russian parents, Sascha’s from Sochi, Daniil’s from Moscow, and root for the Bayern Munich football club.
Dominic Thiem powers past Rafael Nadal in straight sets 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (7/4) to remain undefeated at the ongoing Nitto ATP Finals tournament in London.
The world number three, who defeated reigning champion Stefanos Tsitsipas in his opening game, has won his first two matches in this year’s tournament. Thiem will be guaranteed a semi-final place.
Nadal saw off Andrey Rublev in straight sets in his first match on Sunday, but the 34-year-old was unable to cope with Thiem’s power and poise. Now Nadal has to do it the hard way if he is to land the biggest prize missing from his trophy cabinet after losing the 2010 and 2013 finals at the prestigious season-ending event.
Tsitsipas saved a match point to defeat tournament debutant Andrey Rublev 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(6). Tsitsipas’ Thursday clash with Rafael Nadal will determine which of those two players finishes second in the group.
Daniil Medvedev downs Djokovic 6-3, 6-3 to reach semi-finals.
Zverev keeps hopes alive after beating Schwartzman with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory. Schwartzman is eliminated from contention.
Djokovic who has been a five-time ATP Finals champion can still advance to semi-finals if he beats 2018 champion Alexander Zverev in a winner-takes-all match on Friday.
In doubles, Melzer/Roger-Vasselin defeated Peers/Venus while Granollers/Zeballos beat Pavic/Soares.
Nadal battled past defending champion Tsitsipas 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 for London Semi-final Spot. The World No. 2 tallied a 2-1 record to claim 2nd place in Group London 2020 behind Dominic Thiem.
Nadal is into the semi-finals at this event for the 6th time as he continues his pursuit of a maiden title at the year-end championships.
Rublev beats already-qualified Thiem 6-2, 7-5. Thiem had already secured his spot in semi-final after being the winner of the group from previous victories over Stefanos Tsitsipas and Rafael Nadal. Meanwhile Rublev was unable to qualify for the semifinals after previous back-to-back losses.
In Doubles, Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury book their Semi-final spots with a thrilling 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 10-4 win over Krawietz & Mies.
Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo finished their ATP Tour season and four-year partnership with an impressive win. The 2017 finalists saved three of four break points to defeat Koolhof and Mektic 6-4, 6-7(2), 10-8 in 1 hour and 44 minutes. However, Kubot & Melo were eliminated from semi-final contention earlier.
Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 
Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies 
Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic 
Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo 
Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 
John Peers and Michael Venus 
Jurgen Melzer and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 
Thiem wins the group & advances to the semi-finals
