The third day of action at the Nitto ATP World Tour Finals takes place inside the o2 Arena in London on Tuesday and it sees the players who competed on Sunday back on the court for the second of their three group matches.
Tuesday is a day where the winners from Sunday meet each other as do the losers so one player and team will be on the fringes of qualifying while another will be facing elimination in the face once the action has finished.
Afternoon Session
Kevin Krawietz & Andreas Mies vs Marcelo Melo & Lukasz Kubot
There is plenty on the line in the opening match of the day as the two losing doubles teams from the opening day will battle it out to keep their hopes of qualifying realistic when Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies take on Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot.
I went against the German pairing on the opening day and I didn’t really see anything from them that I didn’t expect to I have to say. I’m not convinced that they are cut out for this court and would be very surprised if they win this match. Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot didn’t do a whole lot wrong in their match against the second seeds on Sunday, they just ran into an inspired team in the match tiebreak. The German pair got their match to the match tiebreak but they were outplayed for the first eight games and weren’t punished. If they are that bad again here I expect this one to go the way of the Brazil-Poland duo like their semi-final in Vienna did recently.
Rafael Nadal vs Dominic Thiem
The singles match in the afternoon session sees the two winners from Sunday battling it out when Rafael Nadal takes on Dominic Thiem in what should be a mouth-watering contest where the winner could well be through to the next round come the end of the day.
Nadal overcame the challenge of Andrey Rublev in his opening match and although he was a lot better than I expected him to be with his record indoors, there was more than a hint of the Russian losing faith in his chances once he fell behind, and he went behind tamely as nerves seemed to hold him back. There was nothing like that with Thiem who avenged his lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in fine style and he looks in the sort of form to hand it to Nadal here. Hopefully both men play their best in this one as their matches tend to be great when they do but I’m on Thiem outright and while I’m tempted by the over in games I’m happy to leave it at that.
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Evening Session
Rajeev Ram & Joe Salisbury vs Wesley Koolhof & Nikola Mektic
The two doubles winners from the action on Sunday meet in the evening pairs match on Tuesday where the number two seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury go up against Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic with the winners not needing too much more to guarantee a spot in the semi-final.
I saw nothing on Sunday to make me go against the number two seeds here. Koolhof and Mektic dominated the German pair but couldn’t put them away and whenever there was pressure on the serve of the Dutchman he wilted badly, coughing up two breaks of serve with double faults and I would be surprised if that weakness isn’t exposed further here. Joe Salisbury had been inactive right up until Saturday so you’ve got to think there is a lot more to come from him so I’m expecting the Australian Open champions to be stronger here and come through with the win.
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Andrey Rublev
The final match of what should be an excellent day of tennis inside the o2 sees the defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas looking to get his title defence back on track when he takes on the Risian star Andrey Rublev in arguably the pick of the matches on paper.
Tsitsipas laid it down to Thiem in the opening match but came up just short but the positive was that there was no sign of the injury that he had spoken about in the lead up to the tournament. Rublev played like a debutant in his first match against Rafael Nadal and in a lot of ways that was a free hit for him but that isn’t the case here. He needs to find his best form which has taken him to five titles this season but there seems to be something about the Greek player in this venue that makes him show up and play decent tennis. Rublev’s second serve looked like a big issue to me on Sunday and if that remains a weakness here it should be a win for Tsitsipas.
Tips
Back M.Melo & L.Kubot to beat K.Krawietz & A.Mies for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Betway
Back R.Ram & J.Salisbury to beat W.Koolhof & N.Mektic for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with 888sport
Back them here:
WON – Back S.Tsitsipas to beat A.Rublev for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
Back him here:
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