Nitto ATP Finals 2019 Day 2: Rafael Nadal loses, Tsitsipas goes past Medvedev
Stefanos Tsitsipas kicked off his ATP Finals 2019 campaign in style as he overcame Daniil Medvedev in their opening match at the O2 Arena in London. Tsitsipas won 7–6(7–5), 6–4 to register his first win over the Russian in their six encounters. Earlier, Medvedev had defeated Tsitsipas twice this year, both at the Masters 1000 tournament.
Stepping on to the court 0-5 down against Medvedev, Tsitsipas did not give away a single break point to his opponent. The Greek also went on to win 89% of the first serve points apart from 13 of the 17 net points.
Both the youngsters are making their debut at the ATP Finals and have not been seeing eye to eye since their first meet at the ATP Masters 1000 Miami. While Medvedev made a comeback from a set down to win the match, a heated handshake from Tsitsipas required intervention from the umpire.
In the other match of the day, Alexander Zverev won against the World No.1 Rafael Nadal to pick up a flying start for his title defence. Zverev defeated Nadal 6–2, 6–4 to register his first victory over the Spaniard. Zverev has now defeated Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Nadal at the ATP Finals over two editions.
Nadal, who has been troubled with a knee injury for a long time began his campaign in a quest to win his first title at the ATP Finals. He was outclassed by the German in all the departments in the indoor court conditions. Zverev's fast serves were difficult to read for Nadal as the seventh seed went on to get 11 aces in the match. He also won 88% of his first-serve points, along with 75% of the net attacks.
Zevrev and Nadal will face Tsitsipas and Medvedev respectively in their next encounters on Wednesday. A win for Zverev in his second game could mean a second consecutive semifinal for the defending champion, and it will be interesting to see how Nadal goes up against the 23-year old, having defeated him in both the previous encounters.