Alcaraz & Rublev meet again in Turin
The 2024 Nitto ATP Finals continue to close in on the knockout rounds with Wednesday’s action, as players in the John Newcombe Group take to the Inalpi Arena for their second round-robin matches.
Carlos Alcaraz and Andrey Rublev both seek their first wins of the week in a critical afternoon matchup, before Day 2 winners Alexander Zverev and Casper Ruud battle it out in the evening for top spot in the group. The Day 4 doubles action will see top seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic face Matthew Ebden and Rohan Bopanna, before Italians Andrea Vavassori and Simone Bolelli play Germans Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz.
[ATP APP][3] Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) vs. [8] Andrey Rublev
Alcaraz struggled with lingering effects of a stomach illness in his opening defeat to Ruud, but the round-robin format of the Nitto ATP Finals could provide the cure. Rather than being sent home with his opening defeat, the No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings has a chance to recover and advance to the knockout rounds in Turin.
“Given how I’ve felt, it’s difficult to think about the semis,” Alcaraz said on Monday. “The good thing in this sport is that your game can feel very bad one day and very good the next.”
Last year in his Turin debut, Alcaraz lost to Zverev in his opening match before rebounding to reach the semis. He began to turn his tournament around by beating Rublev in their first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.
“There have been many players who have lost the first match of the [Nitto] ATP Finals and ended up winning,” Alcaraz pointed out. “Now I want to take it day by day, to feel better, and see how the next match is. I’ll approach it as best I can. Let’s hope things turn out well.”
Rublev avenged his Turin defeat to Alcaraz by beating the Spaniard en route to winning the Madrid ATP Masters 1000 crown this season. Ironically, it was Rublev who was feeling sick in the buildup to that event.
“In the end I guess it forced me to play much more free, because the only way I could somehow win the matches was to play aggressive and try to run less,” Rublev recently told ATPTour.com, recapping his year.
Rublev never needs an excuse to play attacking tennis, but his experience against Alcaraz in Madrid could lead to a similarly all-out approach in Turin. In quick conditions at the Inalpi Arena, whoever can throw the first punch in the rallies could knock out his opponent in this heavyweight fight.
<img alt=”Alexander Zverev, Casper Ruud” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/11/12/19/42/zverev-ruud-turin-2024-h2h.jpg” />
[2] Alexander Zverev (GER) vs. [6] Casper Ruud [NOR] While this will be their first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting in Turin, Zverev and Ruud have played exclusively on the game’s biggest stages in their five previous encounters. After meeting at the ATP Masters 1000s in Cincinnati, Paris and Miami, they split a pair of Roland Garros semi-finals in 2023 and 2024. Zverev leads the series 3-2, including the win that sent him through to his first Roland Garros final this year.
Zverev did not face a break point in his opening Turin win against Rublev, according to Infosys ATP Stats. He also converted on both of his break opportunities in an efficient and commanding opening performance. More than any other competitor this year, the two-time Nitto ATP Finals champion knows the formula for success at the season finale.
“Against anyone here, you have to play your best to have a chance, you have to be solid [and] mentally strong,” he said after his opening win. “I feel like I did that today, I felt like I used my chances quite well and I’m obviously happy with this win.”
Ruud was even more pleased with his opening victory against Alcaraz, even accounting for the Spaniard’s off day.
“It’s only one match, but it’s definitely one of the best wins of the season for me,” he said. “I have not been [full of] confidence in the past weeks or months, so it was a great win for me and hopefully I can build on it, and I would like to get some more wins while I am in Turin.”
Both Zverev and Ruud will need to recalibrate their games after taking on aggressive opponents in their first match. While both players pack plenty of punch — particularly in Zverev’s serve and Ruud’s forehand — they are more content to bide their time in the rallies as they prod for an advantage.
The result of this chess match will determine who ends Wednesday in first place in the John Newcombe Group with a 2-0 record. While the winner will be in pole position to reach the knockout stage, the loser could face a must-win situation in his final round-robin match.
Doubles Action
Top seeds Arevalo and Pavic bid to bounce back from an opening defeat to Krawietz and Puetz on Day 4. The El Salvadoran/Croatian team, champions at Roland Garros and Cincinnati this year, will take on sixth seeds Bopanna and Ebden, who won the Australian Open and Miami in 2024. Neither team took a set in their opening match.
Home favourites Bolelli and Vavassori hope to continue the Italian success in Turin when they take on Krawietz and Puetz. Bolelli and Vavassori are bidding to match what the Germans did this year in Hamburg by winning a title on their own home soil.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]