The winner will join Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem, and Daniil Medvedev in Saturday’s semifinals.
Djokovic is a five-time champion of this event, yet is looking to avoid failing to advance out of the round-robin stage for the second straight year. Zverev was the champion here two years ago, and is vying for his third consecutive semifinal. Friday’s other singles match has no implications on the semifinals, as Daniil Medvedev has already advanced, while Diego Schwartzman cannot.
Novak Djokovic (1) vs. Sascha Zverev (5)
Zverev has a chance today to achieve what very few top players have: an even or better head-to-head record against Novak Djokovic. Sascha is currently 2-3 against Novak, and 1-2 on hard courts. They played twice at this event in 2018, with Djokovic easily prevailing in the round-robin stage, and Zverev avenging that loss a few days later in the final to win the biggest title of his career. Their most recent encounter came last year at Roland Garros, with Novak winning in straight sets. Notably, all five of their matches have been straight-set encounters, with none of the 11 sets even reaching a tiebreak. So based on their history, grabbing the first set today will be extremely crucial. Djokovic appeared unwilling to play long rallies on Wednesday against Medvedev, and admitted during his post-match press conference that he wasn’t feeling 100%. Zverev hasn’t played his best this week either, but was able to tough out a three-set victory over Schwartzman two days ago to keep his advancement hopes alive. If Djokovic is feeling fresher today, his 40-4 record on the year makes him a clear favorite. If not, and if Zverev can limit his double faults, Sascha’s indoor hard court prowess makes him fully capable of eliminating the world No.1 from this tournament.
Daniil Medvedev (4) vs. Diego Schwartzman (8)
On Thursday, having already qualified for the semifinals, Dominic Thiem seemed rather uninterested in supplying resistance to Andrey Rublev. In today’s dead rubber, which comes just 24 hours prior to the semifinals, will Medvedev fight to defeat Schwartzman? Daniil knows he has an appointment on Saturday with Rafael Nadal, which he can safely assume will be a grueling task. So I’m sure he’ll be looking to avoid an extended battle today. And Schwartzman will be keen to not go 0-3 in his ATP Finals debut. Medvedev is 4-0 against the Argentine, having won eight of nine sets played, which includes a straight-set win just two weeks ago at the Paris Masters. Under normal circumstances, Daniil would be a strong favorite. But we’ll see how motivated the Russian is today, especially if Diego gains an early advantage. These two men have a contentious history, going back to their intense battle in January at the ATP Cup where Schwartzman felt Medvedev was taunting him. Diego would surely enjoy gaining his first win against Daniil. And despite their lopsided head-to-head, that’s entirely plausible.
Doubles Matches on Day 6:
Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares (1) vs. John Peers and Michael Venus (6). The winning team will secure the last remaining semifinal birth.
Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos (4) vs. Jurgen Melzer and Edouard Roger-Vasselin (7). This is a dead rubber, as Granollers and Zeballos have already advanced, while Melzer and Roger-Vasselin have been eliminated.
Full order of play is here.
