- Mutua Madrid Open Schedule and Draws for Thursday, April 25, 2024
- Mutua Madrid Open Schedule and Draws for Wednesday, April 24, 2024
- Novak Djokovic Earns 5th Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award
- Mutua Madrid Open Schedule and Draws for Tuesday, April 23, 2024
- Rafael Nadal Commits to 2024 Laver Cup
- Mutua Madrid Open Schedule and Draws for Monday, April 22, 2024
- Casper Ruud Tops Stefanos Tsitsipas for Barcelona Title
- Former World No. 1 Garbiñe Muguruza Retires
- Fritz Flies Into First Clay-Court Final in Munich
- Munich Open Schedule and Draws for Sunday, April 21, 2024
- Home For Sale Minutes From The Indian Wells Tennis Gardens
- Ricky’s pick for the Barcelona final: Ruud vs. Tsitsipas
- Barcelona Open Schedule and Draws for Saturday, April 20, 2024
- Munich Open Schedule and Draws for Saturday, April 20, 2024
- Swiatek Defeats Raducanu to Set Up Stuttgart Semifinal vs. Rybakina
Ricky’s preview and pick for Friday at the Nitto ATP Finals: Tsitsipas vs. Rublev
- Updated: November 17, 2022
Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev will be squaring off for the 11th time in their careers, for the third time this season, and for the third time at the Nitto ATP Finals when they meet again in what amounts to a quarterfinal contest on Friday night.
Tsitsipas leads the head-to-head series 6-4, including 2-0 in 2022. He has won each of their two encounters this year in straight sets; 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in the Madrid quarterfinals and 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 on the indoor hard courts of Astana. They have split their two previous Nitto ATP Finals clashes; Tsitsipas survived a 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(6) thriller two years ago in London before Rublev rolled 6-4, 6-4 last fall in Turin.
That 2021 opening match at the year-end championship can be thrown out the window, as Tsitsipas was dealing with an elbow injury and withdrew from the tournament immediately thereafter. The third-ranked Greek is in much different form this time around. His fall swing includes runner-up performances in Astana and Stockholm plus a semifinal showing in Paris (lost to Novak Djokovic in a third-set tiebreaker). Tsitsipas fell to Djokovic 6-4, 7-6(4) to begin his week in Turin but bounced back to beat Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-7(11), 7-6(1).
Rublev’s week has been almost the same, outlasting Medvedev in a third-set tiebreaker and losing to Djokovic in straight sets. Unsurprisingly, however, the world No. 7’s level has been much less impressive than that of Tsitsipas.
The only concern for Tsitsipas is his tough battle against Medvedev on Wednesday, but at the same time it gives him a ton of momentum and a day off in between matches should have him completely recovered.
Pick: Tsitsipas in 2
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on twitter at @Dimonator.