The bad news is that two Russians will not make the playoffs. Good news: one of the Russian representatives has already reached the next round!
Rublev’s unfortunate knee
The draw brought together Daniil Medvedev and Andrei Rublev in the same group. And this draw allowed, in our wildest dreams, to count on a historic Russian final.
The Russians have already played in the first round. Medvedev turned out to be stronger, who kept his composure in decisive moments, which cannot be said about Rublev. But Andrei looked more than decent in the episodes. And in the match against Carlos Alcaraz, his situation did not seem hopeless.
The 20-year-old Spaniard is in fever at the end of the season. Carlos started with a defeat against the German Alexander Zverev. And in general, he suffered three defeats in a row!
In general, Rublev could compete. But unfortunately, he collapsed after the first set, which he lost with a score of 5:7. In the second set, the Spaniard calmly won – 6:2.
Rublev was panicking and going crazy. At one point, the Russian hit his knee six times with a racket, bloody! After the match, Andrei was even asked how his knee was?
“How is the knee? Normal. Nothing, nothing serious happened. Is it a difficult end to the season? Absolutely. You always want to finish the year well. You are disappointed when you don’t succeed.
This happened today. I was disappointed, I couldn’t cope with it,” Rublev said at a press conference.
Unfortunately, the defeat deprived Andrey of his chances of reaching the playoffs. Additionally, he became the first ATP Finals participant to lose his chance to advance to the next stage. It’s a shame. It seemed like Rublev was ready for more.
Former Russian tennis player Andrei Chesnokov believes that Rublev “collapsed” during the match.
“I think Andrey collapsed. In the first set they studied each other. After 5:4 in the first set, Rublev stopped being himself. Everything happened the other way around .
I expected more. But that’s okay. It’s the end of the season, maybe he’s tired. Rublev had a good season. This year he had a lot of big tournaments,” Chesnokov quotes in Sport-Express.
Medvedev first in playoffs
But Daniil Medvedev completely pleased the Russian fan. It is clear that the 3rd racquet in the world is now in excellent shape. Medvedev made me nervous in the match against Alexander Zverev in the first set. There, Danya reached a tiebreaker in which he lost. But in the decisive moments, Daniil played simply brilliantly, psychologically breaking Zverev.
In the second set, the Germans’ batteries were already weak. Accordingly – 7:6 (9:7), 6:4.
Daniel is doing really well. He doesn’t panic, he acts very rationally and almost without fail.
So far, Dani’s opponent is unknown. Anyone can make the playoffs! In the “Green” group, no player has yet lost their chances of reaching the playoffs.
Some fans are looking forward to Daniil’s match with Jannik Sinner. For example, the Russian was trolled a bit by this fan.
The fan brought a photo with Medvedev and Italian Jannik Sinner. This shows Medvedev miming yawning during the ATP Finals. Next to him is also Sinner.
“Daniel, were you bored in Vienna and Beijing?” – says the caption of the photo.
Recall that at the tournaments in Vienna and Beijing, the Russian lost to Sinner.
By the way, Sinner is also doing great. It’s not for nothing that he already beat Novak Djokovic in the Final.
This is the current situation of the groups.
Today, November 16, we will discover the playoff duos.
Anton Mozgovoy, Athletistic
Source: Sport
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
