Looking for Tennis and Racket Sports International News?

Holger Rune will be credited with his first win in the Green Group after Stefanos Tsitsipas was forced to retire due to a medical reason after just three games of their Nitto ATP Finals round-robin match Tuesday afternoon in Turin.

The 20-year-old Dane lost his first match on debut against Novak Djokovic but is now 1-1 in Green Group play after the Greek was forced to retire after just 15 minutes inside the Pala Alpitour with Rune leading 2-1.

"For me, it's important to be fit and feel good with my back. The pain was very big," Tsitsipas said following his retirement due to a back injury. "I've gone through pain during matches in the past, and I endured pain, but this was clearly too much to handle. I had to take the difficult decision to do what I did.

"I felt it at the second game of the match. I actually felt it in the warm-up with my serve. Warming up on my serve, I felt very irritated and lots of pain hitting me on my back. I kind of knew at that time that I might not be able to go all the way."

[ATP APP]

Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin kept alive their Nitto ATP Finals hopes on Tuesday when they moved past Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 6-4, 6-4 to improve to 1-1 in Green Group play.

The fourth seeds lost to Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in their opening match but responded well against Gonzalez and Molteni, firing eight aces and winning 94 per cent (30/32) of their first-serve points to triumph after 77 minutes.

Gonzalez and Roger-Vasselin joined forces for the first time at the start of this season and enjoyed a standout year. The Mexican-French team won five tour-level trophies, including ATP Masters 1000 crowns in Miami and Paris.

[ATP APP]

Gonzalez, 40, is the first Mexican to qualify for the year-end event since Jorge Lozano in 1989, while Roger-Vasselin, 39, is appearing at the Nitto ATP Finals for the third time. Gonzalez and Roger-Vasselin will play Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek in their final round-robin match on Thursday.

Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev are two of the closest friends on the ATP Tour, so much so that Rublev is godfather to Medvedev's daughter. But across their nine Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings, they have also become familiar foes on the court.

Medvedev, who leads the series 7-2 following his straight-sets win on Monday at the Nitto ATP Finals, says he is able to put their relationship to one side in between the lines.

"To be honest, on court, I don't know how it is for him — for me on court, doesn't exist, friends, enemies. I just try to win the match. I don't think about anything else.

"But when the last point is finished, it's like I feel sorry for him, he lost the match. But it's the same for him. If he beats me, I mean, last year was brutal when he beat me [in Turin]. So I felt for one or two days he was kind of shy to talk to me, taking care.

"It's the same. You always try to look at him and see if tomorrow we can talk like normal. I'm going to say to him good luck, go for it the next matches, and he's probably going to say the same."

Andrey Rublev played a brilliant opening set against Daniil Medvedev but was second best in the key moments in an eventual 6-4, 6-2 defeat on Monday night at the Nitto ATP Finals. While the fifth seed was pleased with his level during the first set, he was left to rue the few untimely errors that cost him.

"The feeling was that as soon as we had a rally, I was playing well and I had great chances," said Rublev, who missed out on seven break points in his last two return games of the opening set. "I was not able to use my serve really well to open the court. When he had important moments, I think almost all the break points he saved with a good serve.

"I had some chances, a drive volley that I missed. I had an opportunity [at] 5-4, 0/30, I had quite an easy drive forehand, and I didn't hit it clean, and the rally continued. He played really well. Also the [service game] that I lost in the first set, I missed two easy balls. One was a backhand in the middle of the court, then break point. Those things in the end make a huge difference."

[SWEEPSTAKES]

The defeat dropped Rublev to 2-7 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Medvedev, but he is becoming more accustomed to facing the unique challenge his close friend presents on the court.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic and home favourite Jannik Sinner seek to maintain their perfect starts at the Nitto ATP Finals on Tuesday evening. The pair clashes in the evening session at Turin's Pala Alpitour, where both players could seal a semi-final spot with a victory.

[1] Novak Djokovic (SRB) vs. [4] Jannik Sinner (ITA)

Hugely popular in Italy and a speaker of the local language, Novak Djokovic is used to channelling plenty of fans’ support in Turin.

That is not likely to be the case on Tuesday night, when the World No. 1 steps out to take on home favourite Jannik Sinner inside the Pala Alpitour. Both players enter their fourth Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting fresh from an opening win in Green Group, and both could seal a semi-final spot with victory.

Sinner will advance if he downs Djokovic in straight sets, or with a three-set triumph combined with Tsitsipas beating Rune earlier in the day. The 22-year-old Italian is searching for his first tour-level win against the six-time Nitto ATP Finals champion Djokovic and will hope to embrace home support, including from his fan club ‘The Carota Boys’, as well as he did in easing past Tsitsipas in his opening match.

"The atmosphere was really, really nice," Sinner said after his opening win. "It's huge pleasure for me to play here in Turin, in Italy. Obviously, a little bit more pressure, but I managed it really well today, so I'm happy."

Feliciano Lopez was recognised for his standout career on Monday in Turin.

The Spaniard retired in June, then aged 41, after losing in the quarter-finals of the Mallorca Championships. The lefty won two matches at the ATP 250 to close out his career on a high.

ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Player Representative Pablo Andujar and former World No. 5 Rainer Schuettler were among those who paid tribute to Lopez.

“I feel very proud of my career. I think I have achieved much more than I expected when I started playing professionally,” Lopez told ATPTour.com. “It's been great being here again, seeing everyone and I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been working with me for the past 20 years helping me in every single way. And also, it's been very nice that they give us a last goodbye with this presentation that I had a few hours ago with Andrea, with [ATP Senior Vice President of Player Relations] Fernando [Sanchez]. It's been great.”

Lopez entertained fans around the world for more than two decades with his aggressive, net-crashing game. The lefty became known for his booming serve and fearless game. He won 766 tour-level matches between singles and doubles, 13 combined titles and more than $18 million in prize money.

After losing third-set tie-breaks in each of his Nitto ATP Finals matches last season, Daniil Medvedev played two sets of the highest quality to bounce back with a 6-4, 6-2 victory against Andrey Rublev in his 2023 opener.

The close friends treated the Turin crowd to a breathtaking match full of lung-busting rallies, with Medvedev saving seven break points in the opening set — all in his last two service games of the set — before dominating from the start in set two.

"I felt good and I managed to put it on the court," Medvedev said post-match. "First set was really tough. I managed to just get a little bit the upper hand on the most clutch moments, and this helped me in the second, so I'm really happy."

[SWEEPSTAKES]

The result extended Medvedev's lead for most tour-level wins (65) and most hard-court wins (48) this season and provided the perfect start in his bid to equal Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz on six tour-level titles on the year. Three of those match wins have come against Rublev this season (also in Dubai and at the US Open), after Rublev beat Medvedev in Turin last season. Medvedev now holds a 7-2 advantage in the pair's Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

For the first time, Carlos Alcaraz has lost a match but is still in with a chance of winning an ATP Tour tournament. With the exception of the Davis Cup, a team event with a very different format, the Spaniard had never before suffered a defeat and had to return to his hotel and focus on his next clash in the same event. Such is the current situation for the No. 2 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings at the Nitto ATP Finals. 

After succumbing to Alexander Zverev, Alcaraz will be back on court on Wednesday in the knowledge that he can still progress to the semi-finals.

“Congratulations to Alex for the win!” wrote the Spaniard on his Instagram account.  “This tournament is different in many ways, and one of them is that it allows you to reach the semis despite losing the first match. We will give our all on Wednesday!”

[SWEEPSTAKES]

Unlike any standard tournament on the ATP Tour, where a defeat sends you packing, the Nitto ATP Finals and its group stage mean players can bounce back from a poor start. There are many examples of players who have lost their opener and gone on to reach the semi-finals. There is also the case of Nikolay Davydenko in 2009. In the competition’s first year in the O2 Arena in London, after a stint in Shanghai from 2005 to 2008, Davydenko lost to Novak Djokovic on Day 1, but later beat Rafael Nadal and Robin Soderling (group stage), Roger Federer (semis), and Juan Martín del Potro (final) to get his hands on the title.

Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury sealed a happy return to the Nitto ATP Finals on Monday in Turin.

The 2022 champions at the prestigious season finale overcame Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden 6-3, 6-4 in their opening Red Group match. A single break in each set was enough for Ram and Salisbury to clinch a 61-minute triumph and extend their winning streak at the Pala Alpitour to six matches.

The fast court in Turin appeared tailor-made for Ram and Salisbury during their 2022 title run, and the American-British duo capitalised on the conditions expertly again on Monday with a high-class serving performance. They won 83 per cent (30/36) of points behind first deliveries and saved the only break point they faced at 1-2, 40/40 in the second set.

It was the second time this year that the teams had clashed on the big stage, after Ram and Salisbury also defeated Bopanna and Ebden in the US Open final in September. The American-British pair is aiming in Turin to become a tour-level champion for the fourth time this season, having also lifted trophies in Lyon and Vienna.

The third-seeded Bopanna and Ebden arrived in Italy having reached the championship match at their past three tournaments — the US Open, the Rolex Shanghai Masters, and the Rolex Paris Masters. India’s Bopanna is a two-time finalist at the Nitto ATP Finals, having reached that stage in London in 2012 and 2015.

Following his 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-6(2) defeat to Jannik Sinner on Tuesday at the Nitto ATP Finals, Novak Djokovic greeted the Italian home favourite with a warm embrace at the net. His goodwill continued in his post-match press conference, where he was full of praise for his opponent's play.

"You have to just congratulate him. He just played a fantastic match," the Serbian said. "That's what I told him at the net. I think in the most important moments, he played his best game and he absolutely deserved to win."

Djokovic was especially complimentary of Sinner's aggressive play during the crucial moments, with the Italian connecting on a flurry of big ground strokes during the close of the first and third sets.

"I think the main difference is that in the important points, he was going for it, he was more courageous," said the World No. 1. "He deserved to win because in important moments I wasn't aggressive enough, I wasn't decisive enough. I gave him the opportunity to take the control over the points."

While Djokovic could find little fault with his own game overall, he did take a lesson from the defeat.

With heavy backing from the Italian crowd at the Nitto ATP Finals, Jannik Sinner earned a dramatic victory against Novak Djokovic for his first Lexus ATP Head2Head win in four tries against the Serbian. The 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-6(2) result improved Sinner to 2-0 this week in Turin and put him in command of the Green Group — though his qualification for the knockout semi-final stage is not yet confirmed.

Djokovic spent much of the three-hour, nine-minute matchup battling back from behind, but he had no answer for Sinner's lightning start to the decisive tie-break. Long after he won nine straight points to snatch the opening set, breaking from 40/0 before a love hold, Sinner surged ahead in the final tie-break with five consecutive points, hitting huge ground strokes in the face of extreme pressure to build what proved to be an unassailable lead.

"It's part of the process. I feel that I'm a little bit more confident in certain moments in a match," Sinner said of his performance in the clutch moments. "I think I was really brave and intelligent in important moments, especially the third set. I felt like we were both serving really well so there were not so many exchanges, but when the exchanges were played we both played really well.

"That was a really high-level match."

In an eventful third set, Sinner led 4-2 — ripping a forehand return winner to break — but was pegged back immediately as Djokovic broke serve for the first time in the match. There would be no comeback in the tie-break, as Sinner sent the crowd to fever pitch with victory before receiving a warm embrace from his opponent at net.

With a unique atmosphere on the court and renowned food and culture off it, Italy is a firm favourite with plenty of ATP Tour stars.

Yet which aspects of the southern European country most appeal to the players in Turin this week for the Nitto ATP Finals? Be it food, films, or Formula 1, ATPTour.com sat down with some of the doubles teams in Green Group to find out…

What is your favourite on-court memory in Italy?
Ivan Dodig: To be honest I like one special word in Italy, when we are on court, how they are cheering for the players. They say, ‘Dai, dai, dai’. It's like we say in Croatia, ‘Idemo’. It's famous, whenever we go around Italy, I always hear that, especially when Italian players are playing.

Austin Krajicek: Last year in Florence we played a 250 leading up to here and the crowd support there was amazing. We played a couple of Italian teams in a row, and although the crowd was significantly against us, to hear how loud the stadium was when we lost a point and how pin drop quiet it was when we won a point was a pretty cool experience. It's cool to be in those atmospheres.

Edouard Roger-Vasselin: Maybe 10 or 15 years ago, I think the first time I brought my girlfriend at that time, who is my wife now, and we went to a Challenger in Italy together. I think it was the first time she came with me to a Challenger, and I made the final. It’s a good memory because it was one of the first times I made the final in a Challenger and my girlfriend was there, so we enjoyed the Italian style, the Italian culture the Italian food, obviously. It was a good memory.

Novak Djokovic might be the only athlete on the planet compared to both Spiderman and a brick wall.

The Serbian star contorts his body to reach balls in impossible positions and often sends it to the other side of the court as if he never moved at all. Djokovic’s combination of speed, flexibility and anticipation make him a nightmare for opponents to deal with.

The six-time Nitto ATP Finals champion is 36, but he does not move like it said former World No. 4 Greg Rusedski.

“I think people take a lot for granted of Novak and his career just because of being around during Federer and Nadal's era,” said Rusedski, who is in Turin commentating on the season finale for Amazon Prime. “I feel like Federer brought movement in tennis to one level and Djokovic has brought it to another level. And we've never seen a 36-year-old, at least in my generation or time I've been watching tennis, that has moved as well as Novak on a tennis court.”

It is not just experts who rave about Djokovic’s movement — his peers do, too. Holger Rune battled Djokovic for more than three hours on Sunday at the Pala Alpitour and in the aftermath of his loss, thought about his opponent’s game.

It promises to be a ferocious encounter. Carlos Alcaraz and Andrey Rublev, having lost their openers at the Nitto ATP Finals against Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev, respectively, will square off on Wednesday in a crucial match for their hopes to progress to the semi-finals of the season’s grand finale.

“Tomorrow is a new match,” Fernando Vicente, Rublev’s coach, told ATPTour.com. “I imagine both of them [Andrey and Carlos] will be thinking that they can win the next two matches, with desire and determination. As we all know, there is a round-robin format here, so everyone is still in it... We are hopeful we can win.”

[SWEEPSTAKES]

Despite the fact that they have shared practice sessions on the ATP Tour, Rublev and Alcaraz have never played each other — tomorrow will be their first Lexus ATP Head2Head match.

“They both play a different style of tennis,” explained Vicente. “In our case, I think Andrey has to play his own game, what he normally does. There isn’t much to say in that regard. He will have to dominate from the baseline and be aggressive, as he plays when he’s on form.

Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos are the first confirmed semi-finalists at the 2023 Nitto ATP Finals.

The Spanish-Argentine duo defeated top seeds Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday evening in Turin to book their spot in the last four. They clinched a single break in each set to improve to 2-0 for the week at the Pala Alpitour and ensure their progress to the semi-finals at the prestigious season finale for the third time as a team (2020-21, 2023).

Granollers and Zeballos clinically converted both break points they earned to notch their 36th tour-level win of the year and improve to 6-7 as a team at the Nitto ATP Finals. Now 2-0 in Green Group, the fifth seeds are assured of a semi-final spot regardless of what happens in their third match against Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni.

Dodig and Krajicek were not without their chances in the first tour-level meeting on a hard court between the two teams. They carved out four break points in the first set, but were unable to convert any as Granollers and Zeballos held firm at key moments throughout the 87-minute encounter.

The Croatian-American duo Dodig and Krajieck, who lead the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings with a 39-14 record, enter their final match against Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin on Friday with a 1-1 record for the week. The match will be a shootout for second place in the group, with Gonzalez and Roger-Vasselin also 1-1 after they beat Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni.

The Red Group returns to the court on Wednesday at the Nitto ATP Finals, where Carlos Alcaraz and Andrey Rublev will meet in the afternoon followed by an evening installment of the long-running Daniil Medvedev vs. Alexander Zverev rivalry.

It will be a maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting between Alcaraz and Rublev, who will both seek to bounce back from opening defeats in Turin. In contrast, familiar foes Medvedev and Zverev contest their 18th tour-level meeting, with the winner set to improve to 2-0 in the group stage.

[2] Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) vs. [5] Andrey Rublev

Making his debut at the Nitto ATP FInals, Alcaraz won the opening set against Zverev but the German ultimately prevailed 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4. It was the Spaniard's third defeat in a row — but unlike after the previous two, he still has a chance to make amends in Turin.

“It’s the only tournament where a loss does not knock you out,” Alcaraz said on Monday. “I still have a chance to continue improving and to get through the group stage. Tomorrow I’ll practise to improve everything that I didn’t do well today, which is a lot."

Specifically, Alcaraz was unhappy with his consistency in the quick conditions at the Pala Alpitour. Rublev looked right at home on the slick surface early in his matchup against Daniil Medvedev, but a few loose errors at key points — and seven break-point saves by the World No. 3 late in the opening set — shifted the match decisively in Medvedev's favour.

Rohan Bopanna is preparing for one of the most significant matches of his season Wednesday at the Nitto ATP Finals. While he will be fully focused on his latest doubles clash alongside Matthew Ebden at Turin's Pala Alpitour, he may also look for inspiration from some fellow Indian sportsmen more than 6,500 kilometres away.

At the same time as Bopanna and Ebden’s Red Group meeting with Rinky Hijikata and Jason Kubler, the Indian men’s national cricket team will be in action in Mumbai, where it takes on New Zealand in a World Cup semi-final. In a country where cricket is akin to a religion, it is a huge occasion, and one that Bopanna is all too aware of despite being so far away.

“I am following it, of course” Bopanna told ATPTour.com when asked about the World Cup, where host nation India has won all nine of its matches so far. “I love cricket. Unfortunately, I have not been able to watch it, because Italy right now is not really showing the cricket, unless I try and find a stream online or something!

“I think the way India is playing this year, it's really looking extremely good. I think, overall, [the whole team] is performing. It's not just that one or two players are doing well. The bowlers, the batsmen, everybody is coming together as a team, and I think we've got some fantastic home support.”

India’s cricket players are widely recognised figures at home. Star batsman Virat Kohli has one of the most-followed Instagram accounts in the world, with 263 million followers, and he is one of a handful of cricket stars with whom Bopanna shares a positive relationship.

Stefanos Tsitsipas apologised to the fans during his press conference on Tuesday at the Nitto ATP Finals, where he retired three games into his match with Holger Rune due to a back injury. The Greek has withdrawn from the season finale and will be replaced in Green Group by Hubert Hurkacz.

“My apologies to all the fans and the crowd that came to support me today and watch the match. I'm really gutted that I wasn't able to finish the match. It's a shame also not to give that spot to someone else to at least try and do something with it,” Tsitsipas said. “My doctors and the countless visits that I had in the past few days suggested that I play, gave me the green light to go and try it for myself.

“Unfortunately, I felt terrible on the court. I did what I could do in the best possible way to be ready and fit for this match, but it didn't work out for me.”

Tsitsipas held his lone service game against Rune and earned two break points against the Dane. But at the first changeover, he retired.

“I hate retiring from matches,” Tsitsipas said. “I’m not the kind of person that likes leaving mid match. It kills me not to be able to finish this tournament, the one that I've prepped for for so long, made sure that I'm completely fit to perform at my best and show my capacities as a player.”

Holger Rune hired former World No. 1 Boris Becker as his coach last month. Since then, Rune has rejuvenated his season following a mid-year slump. With a semi-final appearance in Basel backed up by a quarter-final run in Paris, Rune is now making his Nitto ATP Finals debut with Becker in his corner.

One notable trait in their young partnership is how often Becker rises to his feet while watching his player compete.

“Might be for the blood flow for the legs,” Rune joked in his post-match press conference. “I just think when he wants to do the coaching, he stands up. He can express more, his way of coaching me. So I think that's why. I haven't asked him why he does it.

“When I worked with Patrick [Mouratoglou], he also did it a lot. I think it's just a character thing that some do, some don't do. I like the way my box behaves. It's cool to have him, Lapo [Becherini] (strength & conditioning coach), Mike [James] (data analyst) and my mom to be here with me.”

Rune improved to 1-1 in Green Group on Tuesday when Stefanos Tsitsipas was forced to retire after just three games. The World No. 8 Rune, who suffered a three-set defeat to Novak Djokovic earlier this week, is soaking in his Turin debut.

This year’s doubles field at the Nitto ATP Finals features a mix of established teams and breakthrough stars. Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek are leading the way as the top seeds.

“It feels great to come back here, for us a second time as a team together. I'm really enjoying it. Happy that we had a great season. And to finish it here, it's always the best thing,” Dodig said. “That's why we fight through the year, to play this one. And hopefully this time we can have a good run.

“Last year, we had great matches. We lost all the matches in the [Match] Tie-break. Hopefully this time, we can do it better. But all in all, great season. Happy to be back.”

The best of the best ?

Which team will come out on top and claim the #NittoATPFinals ?? pic.twitter.com/cfjumyXx8v

Dodig and Krajicek won this year’s Roland Garros title and triumphed on four other occasions: at Rotterdam, Monte-Carlo, Queen’s Club and Beijing. But the Croatian-American duo will face stern tests in every match of Green Group action, with all teams in Turin champions in their own right.