It’s Semifinal Saturday in Turin, featuring the top four ATP singles players of 2023.
Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz have been the best two men’s singles players in the world this year, and have already played two of the best matches of 2023. On Saturday, they meet again in the semifinals of the ATP Finals. Will they provide another classic encounter?
The other singles semifinal sees the third and fourth best singles players of the season collide, as Daniil Medvedev faces Italy’s Jannik Sinner. Plus, the doubles semifinals on Saturday feature the defending champions, and three teams vying for their first ATP Finals title.
Jannik Sinner (4) vs. Daniil Medvedev (3) – Not Before 2:30pm
These players shared an extremely lopsided history, until this fall. Medvedev took their first six matches, from February of 2020 all the way up to this year’s championship match in Miami. However, Sinner has now won their last two, in the final of both Beijing and Vienna. All of their meetings have occurred on hard courts.
Sinner is currently on quite a run. He’s on a nine match winning streak, and has won 16 of his last 17. Jannik is the only player to go 3-0 in round-robin play, as he now looks to reach the biggest final of his career in his first time qualifying for the ATP Finals.
Medvedev had an excellent start to the season, winning five titles between February and May. But he hasn’t won a title in six months, with the two aforementioned recent losses in finals to Sinner. This is Daniil’s fifth consecutive appearance at the ATP Finals, and his third time reaching the semifinals. He is 2-0 in semis at this tournament, with previous victories over Rafael Nadal in 2020, and Casper Ruud in 2021.
Based on recent form, especially this week, Sinner should be favored to advance to Sunday’s championship match. However, that’s only if he’s feeling close to 100% physically. During his last round-robin match on Thursday against Holger Rune, Jannik was obviously suffering from some lower back pain. And Medvedev is one of the last people you want to face if you’re looking to shorten points due to an injury. But with the partisan Italian crowd behind him, I like Sinner’s chances to earn his third win this fall over Medvedev.
Carlos Alcaraz (2) vs. Novak Djokovic (1) – Not Before 9:00pm
They have split four previous meetings, three of which have been epic. Last year in Madrid, Alcaraz defeated Djokovic in a third-set tiebreak after over three-and-a-half hours of scintillating rallies, and just a day after Carlitos beat his idol, Rafael Nadal. A year later at Roland Garros, after they split two extremely-competitive sets, Carlitos’ body gave out on him, and Novak ran away with the third and fourth.
But his body didn’t fail him a month later in the championship match of Wimbledon, as Alcaraz handed Djokovic his first loss on Centre Court in over a decade, overcoming the all-time great in a near five-hour five-setter to claim his second Major title. However, just a month after that in Cincinnati, Novak avenged that heartbreaking loss in a near four-hour three-setter, winning in a third-set tiebreak after coming back from a set and a break down, and saving championship point.
Since that loss in Cincy, Alcaraz has not been the same player, and has not reached another final after advancing to eight finals earlier this year. But after going 1-1 in his first two round-robin matches this week, he played his best tennis in months on Friday to defeat Medvedev in straight sets, and secure his semifinal spot in his ATP Finals debut.
Djokovic also went 2-1 during round-robin play, with his loss coming in the best match of the tournament thus far: an over three-hour three-setter against Sinner. Since losing the Wimbledon final to Carlitos, Novak is now 20-1, and has won all three events he’s entered. But he must be a bit tired: all three of his matches this week have gone three sets, and he also played a trio of three-setters two weeks ago at the Paris Masters. And he’s also been battling congestion throughout the week. Despite that, he’s now reached the semifinals of this event for the 12th time in 16 appearances, as he plays for this seventh ATP Finals crown.
In their first encounter on an indoor hard court, Djokovic must be favored. He was won nearly 200 indoor hard court matches in his career, while Alcaraz has not even played 30 matches yet in this setting, and holds a record of just 18-8, with no titles. And their most recent meeting in Cincinnati will be at the forefront of both players’ minds, as their seasons have gone in very different directions since that grueling contest.
Other Notable Matches on Saturday:
Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos (5) vs. Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden (3) – Granollers and Zeballos are 3-0 this week, but are 0-2 in the semifinals of this event, losing in both 2020 and 2021. Bopanna and Ebden are 2-1 this week, and Rohan is 2-0 in his previous semifinal appearances at the ATP Finals with two different partners.
Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury (6) vs. Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin (4) – Ram and Salisbury are the defending champions, and went 3-0 in round-robin play. Gonzalez and Roger-Vasselin went 2-1, but have now won 10 of their last 11 matches. And two weeks ago in the semifinals of Bercy, they beat Ram and Salisbury in straight sets.
Saturday’s full Order of Play is here.