He will play this Monday against Zverev The day of Carlos Alcaraz’s debut in the Nitto ATP Finals has arrived. And the Murcian will do it in style: being the second seed in the tournament in Turin. The last time a player played his first match in this event and at the same time was part of the Top-2 seeds was 17 years ago. The protagonist of that time? Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard, however, had a turbulent start to that event held in China in 2006, as he fell in the opening match against James Blake before ending his participation in the semi-finals (l. to Roger Federer). Alcaraz’s first rival in this type of event will be Alexander Zverev, seventh seed. By simply jumping onto the court, starting at 2:30 p.m. (local time), the 20-year-old from Murcia will become the 15th Spanish tennis player to compete as a direct qualifier in the Nitto ATP Finals (not counting substitutes). He will match Andrés Gimeno, Manuel Orantes, José Higueras, Emilio Sánchez, Emilio Bruguera, Alberto Berasategui, Carlos Moya, Alex Corretja, Albert Costa, his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, Nadal, Tommy Robredo, David Ferrer and Fernando Verdasco. “I’m just going to think about being here to debut and enjoy it as much as possible. It is a gift to be here, even though we have earned it,” he said over the weekend. Alcaraz, who will also be the youngest Spaniard to make his tournament debut since Nadal in 2006, will look to improve his Lexus ATP HeadToHead with Zverev, who is at 3-3. The No. 2 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings prevailed in straight sets in the last two matches, played this year in Madrid and at the US Open. Increasing his streak against the two-time tournament champion (2018, 2021) would also help him regain some confidence after falling on debut in his most recent participation at the ATP Masters 1000 in Paris (l. to Safiullin) . In addition, it would help him pave the way for his intention to overcome a group that also includes Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, who have already been semifinalists in this event. Precisely these last two will collide at the end of the day. Starting at 9:00 p.m. local time, they will face each other for the ninth time. Medvedev leads the Lexus ATP HeadToHead 6-2, but Rublev won the only precedent they have at the Nitto ATP Finals level. It was a year ago, and the result helped him advance to the semifinals for the first time in his third participation. Medvedev, champion of the tournament in 2020, would be eliminated in the group stage and without victories, so from this Monday the No. 3 in the rankings will be looking to get even. In doubles action, the Dutch Wesley Koolhof and the British Neal Skupski, second seeds, will clash with the Australian debutants Jason Kubler and Rinky Hijikata. Later in the day, the other duel in the red group will be played: Rohan Bopanna/Matthew Ebden against Rajeev Ram/Joe Salisbury.
2023-11-12 20:06:13
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