Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal takes on US Open champion Dominic Thiem.
Both men were victorious in their opening matches on Sunday, setting up this blockbuster match today to determine the Group London leader. In the evening session, two players who have already met twice this autumn will play their 2020 rubber match. Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev will battle to stay out of last place, and increase their chances of advancing out of the round-robin stage.
Rafael Nadal (2) vs. Dominic Thiem (3)
Nadal leads their head-to-head 9-5, though 12 of those 14 matches took place on clay. Both of their previous hard court meetings have been tight, extended affairs. Two years ago at the US Open, they played for nearly five hours, and beyond 2:00am in the morning, with Rafa winning in a fifth set tiebreak. Earlier this year in Melbourne, they again battled for over four hours, with Thiem claiming victory in a fourth set tiebreak. On Sunday, Nadal needed only two sets to overcome a red-hot Rublev, while Thiem required three sets against last year’s champion, Tsitsipas. Dominic was previously a player who struggled outside of clay, but that’s drastically changed over the last three seasons. Since 2018, Thiem is 65-25 on hard courts, with five titles. That of course includes his first Major two months ago in New York. And significantly, Dominic owns multiple indoor over the last few years. By contrast, Nadal has only claimed two indoor hard court titles in his entire career. With Rafa’s classic forehand not bouncing as high on this surface, Thiem is the slight favorite inside the O2 Arena.
Stefanos Tsitsipas (6) vs. Andrey Rublev (7)
Two months ago in the final of Hamburg, Tsitsipas led 5-3 in the third and served for the title. But Rublev would win the last four games and the championship. Two weeks later at Roland Garros, Stefanos avenged that loss with a straight set victory. Overall they’ve split their four career tour-level meetings, including their two hard court encounters. These fast-playing, low-bouncing courts would seem to favor Rublev. But despite his five titles this year, and some nice wins against big names at smaller events, Andrey remains an unproven commodity at bigger events. That point was reinforced when Nadal defeated him fairly easily in Rublev’s ATP Finals debut on Sunday. Andrey has reached three Major quarterfinals, and only one Masters 1,000 quarter. Meanwhile, Tsitsipas has achieved two Slam semifinals, and was the champion of this event a year ago in his debut. Stefanos’ big-match experience may prove the difference today.
Doubles Matches on Day 3:
Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies (3) vs. Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo (8). These two teams just played a few weeks ago in the Vienna semifinals, with Kubot and Melo prevailing 10-8 in a deciding tibreaker.
Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury (2) vs. Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic (5). Both teams are 1-0, so the winning team today will take a considerable lead in Group Mike Bryan.
Full order of play is here.
