Two-thirds of the famed Big 3 have had contrasting fortunes here in the 2022 ATP Finals as Novak Djokovic is on his way to the final four while Rafael Nadal is headed for an early exit.
Djokovic is leading the Red Group with two consecutive wins, whereas Nadal is at the bottom of the Green Group after losing back-to-back matches.
Casper Ruud, on the other hand, is on top of the Green Group with consecutive victories of his own. And there’s still more to play for as Taylor Fritz, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Andrey Rublev all still have a realistic chance of joining Ruud and Djokovic into the semi-finals.
As we’re slowly approaching the climax of the year-end tournament, read on below as SBOTOP brings to you the latest ATP Finals 2022 updates.
Djokovic seals final four spot
Five-time champion Novak Djokovic is now through to the final four after beating Andrey Rublev, 6-4, 6-1 on Wednesday. It only took the Serb less than 70 minutes to beat the young Russian to qualify for his 11th semi-final In 15 appearances in this particular tournament.
Against Rublev, Djokovic only committed six unforced errors as he frustrated his counterpart all game long. When the Russian had chances to win several games, he just couldn’t pull through against the former World No. 1.
The said result was in stark contrast of his opening match against Stefanos Tsitsipas, which ended with a scoreline of 6-4, 7-6(4), for his 60th career win against a Top 3 player in the ATP rankings. It also marked his ninth consecutive victory over the Greek.
Coming into this tournament, the ATP Finals 2022 odds have Djokovic as one of the favourites to win despite being only No. 8 in the rankings.
The Serb is peaking at the right time as he’s aiming to equal Roger Federer’s record of six titles in this competition, with his last victory being in 2015.
Novak Djokovic is set to wrap up the round-robin against the winless Daniil Medvedev tomorrow where he owns a 7-4 edge in their head-to-heads.
Nadal ousted after back-to-back losses
Rafael Nadal will miss out once again on having a chance to add an ATP Finals crown to his trophy cabinet since he’s officially eliminated. The top-seeded Spaniard recently lost 6-3, 6-4 to Felix Auger-Aliassime in an error-strewn performance.
Nadal has never won the ATP Finals championship in 10 attempts. The closest that he got to winning was when he finished as a runner-up back in 2010 and 2013.
The Spaniard looked rusty following a long layoff because of an abdominal injury. Following defeats at the US Open and Paris, the 36-year-old has now lost four straight matches after losing to debutants Auger-Aliassime on Tuesday and Fritz in the opener last Sunday.
Following a slow start where he squandered four break points, Nadal seemed to have turned the corner in the eighth game when he was up 40-0 on his serve, but he had two double-faults and a couple more errors which gave Auger-Aliassime his first break of the match.
Auger-Aliassime went on to serve out the first set and broke Nadal’s serve again in the second set. He essentially iced the match when Nadal had yet another fault.
With Rafael Nadal out of the tournament, it also meant that his fellow Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz is now rubber-stamped as the World No. 1 at the end of this year.
Alcaraz, 19, is the youngest-ever World No. 1 since the ATP rankings began in 1973. He’s not competing in the ATP Finals since he’s recovering from an abdominal injury that he sustained during the Paris Masters earlier this month.
Fritz, Auger-Aliassime, Tsitsipas, Rublev jostle for remaining semis berths
With Novak Djokovic and Casper Ruud guaranteed to advance, the last two semi-final spots are up for grabs between Taylor Fritz, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Stefanos Tsitipas, and Andrey Rublev.
In the Green Group, Auger-Aliassime and Fritz will have their second-ever meeting tomorrow, where the latter owns a 1-0 advantage in the head-to-heads after beating the former earlier this year in the ATP Cup in Sydney, Australia last January.
Meanwhile in the Red Group, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev will square off for the 10th time. Tsitsipas leads Rublev 6-4 in the head-to-heads and he won their previous encounter at the 2022 Astana Open.
Tsitsipas is looking to become the 11th player to win multiple ATP Finals titles. He won it all in his debut in 2019 where the bested Dominic Thiem in the final.
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