Three champions and a rookie on the rise in a luxurious semifinals

This Saturday, at the Pala Alpitour in Turin there will be a luxurious semi-finals of the ATP Finals that will feature the presence of three champions of the tournament, something that had not happened since in 1994 they reached the crosses Andre Agassi, Boris Becker and Pete Sampras, in an edition in which the American triumphed. Novak Djokovic, who lifted the trophy five times, will face 2018 winner Alexander Zverev, in the main game of the day, not before 9:00 p.m. (Movistar Deportes 1). At 2:00 p.m., Defending champion Daniil Medvedev meets rookie contender Casper Ruud, who captured the square against the forecast on Friday and with a comeback against Andrey Rublev.

The 22-year-old Norwegian and world number eight, who has won five titles this season, overcame a bad start and beat the Russian in the tiebreaker of the third set (2-6, 7-5 and 7-6 (5 ) in 2h 23). Ruud’s victory, 11th in a row that he achieved in a decisive set, had double merit, because until now he had lost all four games played against Rublev, in which he had added only one set, the first in his head-to-head set. Since then and until yesterday’s duel, 8-0. “This track is very fast and Andrey plays very fast, he knew he had to fight fire with fire. In the decisive moments I think I played with intelligence, “said Casper, who will meet again a Moscow rival and against whom he has a negative balance (0-2), Medvedev. “It will be another battle against a different type of player. He has beaten me twice, but I know a bit what I am going to find and it will be a fun challenge.”, argument. He also spoke about his skill in scoring victories in the last set: “That game I lost in five at Roland Garros (in the third round against Spaniard Davidovich) gave me motivation. It was hard, but at the same time it generated in me a kind of desire for revenge. “

The fact is, Ruud has put Norway on the world tennis map. He is the first tennis player from his country to play the Finals and he has nothing to lose. The situation is very different both for the number two in the world, and for the one, Djokovic, who will face an opponent, Zverev, who knows what it is to beat him and who, in fact, did it very recently, in the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics. This course they have already collided four times, with three victories for the Serbian and one, the aforementioned, for the German. The total of their confrontations shows a 7-3 favorable to Novak. Among Sascha’s other two triumphs, the one he achieved in London, in the 2018 Masters Cup final, stands out. His can already be considered a mini-classic.

On Friday, Djokovic resolved the procedure for his last group stage match, which did not affect the final classification but earned the winner 200 points for the ranking and 152,000 euros, with a comfortable victory against reserve Norrie by 6-2 and 6-1 in 1h 06. The Serbian arrives undefeated and without losing a set to the qualifying rounds. It is the sixth and third time, respectively, that he has achieved it in the tournament. “I’ve gotten better every game. I couldn’t be more satisfied with my tennis before what will probably be the two biggest games of the tournament,” he says.

Granollers and Zeballos

In doubles, the Spanish Marcel Granollers and the Argentine Horacio Zeballos meet today (18:30) in the semifinals with one of the best pairs, that of the French Herbert and Mahut, winners of five Grand Slams.

Results, classifications and calendar.