We have reached the knockout stages of the Nitto ATP World Tour Finals and over the course of two sessions of play on Saturday we will find out which two singles stars and doubles teams will play off for the titles on Sunday.
The line-up in the doubles draw looks superb and there is nothing shabby about the singles action over the course of Saturday either so we should expect some high quality tennis with everything on the line for those involved.
Day Session
Rajeev Ram & Joe Salisbury vs Wesley Koolhof & Neal Skupski
Such is the way with round robin tournaments we have the two best doubles pairs in the world battling it out in the opening semi-final of the day as the number two seeds of Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury take on the runaway world number one pair of Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski for a place in the final.
This match should really have been the final but Koolhof and Skupski slipped up in the group phase. In the two matches they won they did enough to come out on top, winning from behind but not really playing their best stuff. They will need to up it here if they are going to come through because Ram and Salisbury have looked on it all week. The American/English pair have more big titles to their name in their partnership and I wonder if that will be significant here. I hope it isn’t because I’m effectively already on the number one seeds at 2/1 having backed them outright before a ball was hit. I’ll let that ride and hope that knockout tennis brings the best out of the leading team of the season.
Novak Djokovic vs Taylor Fritz
The opening semi-final in the singles sees the man I think most would attach as the best player in the world right now even though the rankings say otherwise in Novak Djokovic going up against the Indian Wells champion Taylor Fritz for a place in the final.
On the face of it when you look at the past meetings between these two and see that Fritz has lost all five matches and only taken a set off the Serb in one of them it is hard to give the American much hope in this semi-final, however Daniil Medvedev might have done him a good turn because he kept Djokovic on court for 3h15 on Friday afternoon and while the former champion rarely has issues with recovery, he isn’t getting any younger and less than 24 hours to back up a huge physical effort the following day shouldn’t be taken for granted. I still expect Djokovic to win this match but that battle he had on Friday while Fritz had his feet up puts me off backing Djokovic to cover a handicap. Given the poor record he has in this matchup though it is hard to be too confident with Fritz so I’m happy to leave this one alone.
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Night Session
Nikola Mektic & Mate Pavic vs Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara
The second doubles semi-final sees the best team from last season looking to make it through to the final when the Croatian pair of Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic take to the court to take on the surprise package of the event so far in Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara.
This should be a good match because the Croatian pair have won all three matches they have played this week and looked really good in doing it but only Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury have got the better of Glasspool and Heliovaara and they only did so in two tight sets. The English/Finn pairing have served well in this tournament and in the main they have returned well too and if they can get a handle on the Pavic leftie serve then they could be in business here. It is hard to go against the Croatians though because they are a class pairing but the odds fully reflect that.
Casper Ruud vs Andrey Rublev
The last match of a sizzling Saturday out in Turin sees the number two seed Casper Ruud looking to make it through to the ATP World Tour Finals closer to add to the finals he reached in the French Open and the US Open earlier in the year. The Russian number two Andrey Rublev is the man standing in his way.
Ruud would have been watching on as Rublev underwent a win or bust showdown with Stefanos Tsitsipas on Friday evening and the Norwegian would probably have been hoping for a lengthy three-set contest. He got the three set contest but at just under a couple of hours it wasn’t the sort of physical battle that could give Ruud a huge edge in this last four clash. In fact, Rublev might feel that having won a knockout match against Tsitsipas he is better placed than Ruud to get the job done here, especially as he previously beat Daniil Medvedev prior to that. Ruud opened up his campaign with two good wins over Felix Auger-Aliassime and Taylor Fritz though and although he lost to Rafael Nadal he was already through by then. I’m a little surprised that Ruud is the outsider here based on the year he has had. I think he’s the more reliable of the two mentally but I’m already on him at a shade over 5/1 to win this one having backed him outright. I am expecting a tight semi-final here though. These two met in the round robin phase here a year ago and Ruud came out on top in a deciding set tiebreak. I wouldn’t rule out the same thing happening here but given the serve and forehand these two both have I certainly expect to see more than 23.5 games before this one is done and dusted.
Tips
Back C.Ruud vs A.Rublev – Over 23.5 games for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Coral
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