ATP Final: Joe Salisbury & Rajeev Ram win Turin semi-final
Joe Salisbury is the first Briton to reach the ATP Finals doubles final after winning through in Turin with American partner Rajeev Ram.
Joe Salisbury is the first Briton to reach the ATP Finals doubles final after winning through in Turin with American partner Rajeev Ram.
Title sponsor Nitto, in cooperation with Casa UGI, is gifting the 2021 Nitto ATP Finals’ mascot kid programme to the Casa UGI organization.
Casa UGI, which was established in 1980, provides support to children who are battling cancer. It also helps the children’s families, doctors, nurses, and volunteers.
Nitto is providing the children with the memorable experience of welcoming the players on the court. Afterwards, the kids watch the action alongside their families from some of the best seats inside the Pala Alpitour.
In a statement, Nitto said: “Nitto is supporting those who take on challenges. As title partner of the Nitto ATP Finals, we sincerely hope that many children will have an incredible experience at the Nitto ATP Finals, and that the heated battle between the world’s best players will become a treasured lifelong memory which will inspire them, as they move forward toward a bright future.”
Nitto has also donated tickets to Casa UGI, local tennis schools and frontline workers during the pandemic.
Early in his career, Casper Ruud embraced his clay-court success and wanted to follow in the footsteps of Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem by becoming a menace on the surface. Although the Norwegian has done that, he has had a Ruud Renaissance elsewhere: hard courts.
The 22-year-old has reversed his fortunes on the surface in 2021 in a big way. And after advancing to the semi-finals of the Nitto ATP Finals on Friday with a victory against Andrey Rublev, Ruud is two wins away from lifting the trophy at the season finale on his least-favoured surface.
“When I was watching him play against Rublev, your mindset is just that he’s really good now,” He’s not just a clay-court player who is starting to get better,” former World No. 4 Brad Gilbert told ATPTour.com. “He’s just a good player now and that result didn’t surprise me.”
Entering the season, Ruud was 16-27 in tour-level matches on hard courts. This year, he is 25-9 with victories against Rublev, Turin competitor Cameron Norrie, former World No. 1 Andy Murray, Argentine Diego Schwartzman, 2017 Nitto ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov and more. Only three players own a better winning percentage on hard courts this year, and they are the three other semi-finalists in Turin: Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev.
It has been a work in progress for Ruud, who focussed on his hard-court game during the ATP Tour’s suspension due to the Covid-19 pandemic last year. He spent the time making himself comfortable being uncomfortable.
“You have to be even faster with the legs and quicker with the steps, reacting quicker than maybe when you’re standing two, three, four metres behind the baseline,” Ruud told ATPTour.com at the time. “It’s definitely been a challenge for me. In some practices I’ve felt like I’ve made more mistakes than I usually do because stepping more into the court is higher risk than staying back and playing with more topspin.
“It’s more comfortable being aggressive than being on the defence and running around all the time. You have to try to be as aggressive as you can but for some people it comes more naturally than others.”
Ruud’s team, spearheaded by his father, former World No. 39 Christian Ruud, has known Casper’s strongest surface is clay, where he has time to hit as many forehands as possible and grind down opponents. But Christian never lost faith that his son had potential on hard.
“On hard courts you have to stay inside the baseline more and take the ball on the rise. He has improved that a lot, especially on the backhand side. He has beaten some good guys on hard courts this year and previously,” Christian told ATPTour.com in August. “While his favourite surface may always be clay, I think he can do well in the future on hard courts.”
Ruud’s surge on hard came quicker than they might have expected. The Norwegian claimed his first ATP Tour title on the surface at the San Diego Open, where he lost just two games in the final against Norrie. Now, he is shining in Turin at the Pala Alpitour.
Early in the week, several players noted the court’s quick speed, which would seemingly be unfavourable for Ruud. But Gilbert, who has been following the Nitto ATP Finals closely from his home in California, believes it has been closer to a medium speed. And the Norwegian has thrived, defeating Norrie and Rublev to advance to the semi-finals against Medvedev.
Gilbert remembers watching Ruud two years ago in Houston, where he made his maiden tour-level final. And a couple of things stick out that the former coach of Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick believes has made a big difference.
“He’s improved his serve a tonne. That’s his most improved shot. Both his first and his second. He’s incredibly improved on both those shots,” Gilbert said. “His forehand is his big weapon and in the past he’d hit a lot of home runs, but have a lot of misses. He’s so much more consistent and accurate with his forehand as well. Those two shots are why he is playing so much better.
“He’s gotten consistent, he’s gotten solid and he’s learned to not overplay, not play differently from what he tries to do on clay where he’s so good.”
Early in his career, Casper Ruud embraced his clay-court success and wanted to follow in the footsteps of Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem by becoming a menace on the surface. Although the Norwegian has done that, he has had a Ruud Renaissance elsewhere: hard courts.
The 22-year-old has reversed his fortunes on the surface in 2021 in a big way. And after advancing to the semi-finals of the Nitto ATP Finals on Friday with a victory against Andrey Rublev, Ruud is two wins away from lifting the trophy at the season finale on his least-favoured surface.
“When I was watching him play against Rublev, your mindset is just that he’s really good now,” He’s not just a clay-court player who is starting to get better,” former World No. 4 Brad Gilbert told ATPTour.com. “He’s just a good player now and that result didn’t surprise me.”
Entering the season, Ruud was 16-27 in tour-level matches on hard courts. This year, he is 25-9 with victories against Rublev, Turin competitor Cameron Norrie, former World No. 1 Andy Murray, Argentine Diego Schwartzman, 2017 Nitto ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov and more. Only three players own a better winning percentage on hard courts this year, and they are the three other semi-finalists in Turin: Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev.
It has been a work in progress for Ruud, who focussed on his hard-court game during the ATP Tour’s suspension due to the Covid-19 pandemic last year. He spent the time making himself comfortable being uncomfortable.
“You have to be even faster with the legs and quicker with the steps, reacting quicker than maybe when you’re standing two, three, four metres behind the baseline,” Ruud told ATPTour.com at the time. “It’s definitely been a challenge for me. In some practices I’ve felt like I’ve made more mistakes than I usually do because stepping more into the court is higher risk than staying back and playing with more topspin.
“It’s more comfortable being aggressive than being on the defence and running around all the time. You have to try to be as aggressive as you can but for some people it comes more naturally than others.”
Ruud’s team, spearheaded by his father, former World No. 39 Christian Ruud, has known Casper’s strongest surface is clay, where he has time to hit as many forehands as possible and grind down opponents. But Christian never lost faith that his son had potential on hard.
“On hard courts you have to stay inside the baseline more and take the ball on the rise. He has improved that a lot, especially on the backhand side. He has beaten some good guys on hard courts this year and previously,” Christian told ATPTour.com in August. “While his favourite surface may always be clay, I think he can do well in the future on hard courts.”
Ruud’s surge on hard came quicker than they might have expected. The Norwegian claimed his first ATP Tour title on the surface at the San Diego Open, where he lost just two games in the final against Norrie. Now, he is shining in Turin at the Pala Alpitour.
Early in the week, several players noted the court’s quick speed, which would seemingly be unfavourable for Ruud. But Gilbert, who has been following the Nitto ATP Finals closely from his home in California, believes it has been closer to a medium speed. And the Norwegian has thrived, defeating Norrie and Rublev to advance to the semi-finals against Medvedev.
Gilbert remembers watching Ruud two years ago in Houston, where he made his maiden tour-level final. And a couple of things stick out that the former coach of Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick believes has made a big difference.
“He’s improved his serve a tonne. That’s his most improved shot. Both his first and his second. He’s incredibly improved on both those shots,” Gilbert said. “His forehand is his big weapon and in the past he’d hit a lot of home runs, but have a lot of misses. He’s so much more consistent and accurate with his forehand as well. Those two shots are why he is playing so much better.
“He’s gotten consistent, he’s gotten solid and he’s learned to not overplay, not play differently from what he tries to do on clay where he’s so good.”
Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury booked their places in the title match at the Nitto ATP Finals on Saturday with a comeback win at the Pala Alpitour in Turin.
The second-seeded American-British pair will aim to capture their third title of the season after they defeated top-seeded Croatian Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic 4-6, 7-6(3), 10-4 in one hour and 34 minutes. It was their second straight victory in six matches against Mektic and Pavic this year.
“It felt really good to win, especially in this tournament, the biggest ATP tournament of the year,” said Salisbury. “The way we did it, coming from a set down and not playing our best. We were really up against it and we showed a lot of character, a lot of fighting spirit to stick in there [and] believe that we could turn it around and play our best tennis at the end.”
Ram and Salisbury will next play third-seeded Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, the 2019 season finale champions, who beat fourth-seeded Spaniard Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-3, 6-4 in Saturday’s night session. They are tied 1-1 against Herbert and Mahut in their ATP Head2Head series, saving two match points in a 6-7(7), 6-0, 13-11 win on Wednesday in Red Group action.
[FOLLOW FINALS]In a clash of small margins, Mektic and Pavic gained the first break in the third game when Salisbury double-faulted on a deciding Deuce point. While Ram and Salisbury won 63 per cent of the Croatians second-service points in the 34-minute opener, they were unable to convert their lone break point chance at 1-2. Pavic, who was a continual threat on return of serve, was able to keep his cool to close out a love hold with an ace.
Knowing they needed to raise their games, Ram and Salisbury did just that in the second-set. In an incredible serving display, Ram won 20 consecutive first-service points overall and it was the American’s influence that took the encounter to a Match Tie-break, which they dominated for their 44th win of 2021.
Mektic and Pavic, the year-end No. 1s in the FedEx ATP Doubles Team Rankings, have a 61-13 match record on the season with nine titles.
Defending champion Daniil Medvedev is back in the semi-finals of the Nitto ATP Finals, where he will play tournament debutant Casper Ruud for a place in the championship match.
It has been another impressive season for Medvedev, who won his first major title at the US Open and firmly entrenched himself at No. 2 in the FedEx ATP Rankings. The Russian has also won four of his nine sets against World No. 1 Novak Djokovic this year, proving a difficult foe for the Serbian star. The pair could face one another again in the final in Turin if they win their semi-finals at the Pala Alpitour.
ATPTour.com caught up with Medvedev’s coach, Gilles Cervara, before the tournament to discuss his charge’s success, his budding rivalry with Djokovic and more.
How much did things change with Daniil’s US Open win?
I would say they didn’t, really. I didn’t see any difference in anything right now. We try to do the same, to try to do the best all the time. That’s our goal.
When you win a major, that’s life-changing. So how important has it been that he has stayed the same?
It helps you to try to keep focussing on the performance. When I say performance, it’s all the things around tennis: the physical side, mental side, the things we can still improve. There are a lot of things to improve all the time.
Of course the details are getting smaller and smaller. When I was younger, I read many times that Rafa said, ‘I need to improve this, this and this.’ I realised it’s exactly the same for us. It just becomes small details.
Success changes some people, but it seems like with Daniil that’s not the case. He still wants to play video games and all the usual stuff. How nice is it for you as a coach that he’s the same guy?
It makes the priorities still the same. The work on court and outside the court is about performance. We keep the same goals and focus on practice.
Daniil has been playing Novak a lot lately in important matches. Is it fun for you as a coach to try to solve that puzzle?
Yes, it is. It’s fun for me because I like to analyse many things to find solutions. Before the Paris final, we expected Novak could change something in his game and he did. Again, I read many times… I read that Agassi said Sampras made him better and Sampras said Agassi made him better. It’s exactly the same. When you play top players like this, after each match you try to find the solution to solve the problem. It can be the same for us if we have a chance to play Novak this week.
How tricky is it when he changes the game plan so much like he did in Paris and then you have to wonder if he’s going to change again or is he going to do what worked last week?
We know that he’s able to make another type of game. If you keep in your mind that he’s able to play like this, it makes you a bit more ready if it happens again. But now it’s our turn to find the solution first.
The Nitto ATP Finals was very important for Daniil last year. Just how important was it for him?
The good thing is I feel that winning doesn’t change anything for us. It means we want to win more and more and more. It’s just normal. When you come on court to do your best, to make the best shot, the best practice, when you play to win a match, it’s something totally normal for these guys here. It’s their job.
They are here because they want to win all the time. It’s nothing special. Maybe from outside it looks tough, but in fact it’s like the blood going in the veins. It’s the same.
Of course Novak is year-end No. 1, but is chasing World No. 1 one of the next big goals for Daniil? Or is thinking about that not so good?
It’s okay to think about this, it’s nothing bad. It’s a goal, so it’s trying to reach the goal. For me it’s if you play well, if you win more matches than the other players, then you will become No. 1. It’s just a process.
When you get closer to this ranking, maybe you start to realise that you can become No. 1 and you want it more.
Every week you’re focussed on improving but have you stopped to think how far you’ve come with Daniil over the past several years?
For myself, from my position, yes. Twenty years ago I couldn’t imagine I could be there even if it wasn’t one of my goals in my career and in my life.
I realised the road I made to arrive here and it makes this life with a very good taste. I’m proud of myself and realised that maybe I found the different ingredients to reach this position.
How important is it to finish this week on a high note?
It is important because it also gives a good dynamic for the next season. If not, it gives you another goal, to try to do better for the beginning of the year.
It comes back to what I said before. It means you want to do the best and finish the week as the winner and feel you are the best and did the best job you could do.
Have you ever had to have a talk with Daniil about that mindset?
For him I think it’s natural and for myself also. It’s like blood in our veins. You don’t think about having blood in the veins. We don’t have to think about it. It just is.
It is one thing for Daniil to get to this very high level, but how big of a challenge is it for him to stay there?
It’s always tough because you never know what can happen. It’s always unstable because you cannot control everything on court. You cannot control everything in your mind week after week. It makes this achievement a big challenge.
What has Daniil improved the most this year?
It’s so many things physically, mentally. Being able to stay at this level week after week. To stay stable during the whole year like this. Even during the clay season, there were tough moments before the French Open. To see he was able to find a good dynamic during the summer, it’s always a good pleasure and good feeling that he was able to find his best any time in the season even if just before it was tough.
All photos credits: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour.
Unvaccinated players will not be allowed to compete at the 2022 Australian Open, says tournament director Craig Tiley.
Novak Djokovic’s pursuit of a record-equalling sixth Nitto ATP Finals title will go up a level on Saturday when he faces Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals in Turin.
The World No. 1 downed Cameron Norrie to finish the round-robin stage with a perfect 3-0 record, but expects a tough challenge against Zverev as he aims to capture the trophy at the Pala Alpitour this weekend to draw level with Roger Federer on six season finale crowns.
“There is always motivation for history, but I am just focusing on tomorrow’s match,” Djokovic said. “It is going to be a big challenge. Sascha is one of the best servers in the game. He has been playing really good tennis and had one of the best seasons in his career. [He has] just played at a very high level throughout the year.
“Indoors, [he is] definitely top two or three players we have. With the big serve, he is equally as good offensively and defensively. It is going to be a battle, but I am ready for it. We all want to finish the year in the best possible way.”
Djokovic, who last held aloft The Brad Drewett Trophy in 2015, has earned 51 tour-level wins this season, having gone 27-1 major in major championship play. The 34-year-old drew level with Federer and Rafael Nadal on 20 majors earlier this year and captured his record-breaking 37th ATP Masters 1000 crown in Paris.
It has led to former World No. 1 Pete Sampras calling Djokovic the greatest player to ever grace the court.
When reflecting on Sampras’ praise, Djokovic said: “This means the world to me, especially as it is coming from someone who is a role model. He was the one when he played his first Wimbledon final, it was my first image of tennis. He made me dream to become a champion like him and hold the Wimbledon trophy and become World No. 1.
“He is one of the best players of all time in our sport and for something like that to come out of his mouth is extremely satisfying for me to hear.”
The rivalries which have defined the 2021 hard-court season are taking centre stage once again in the climactic rounds of the Nitto ATP Finals.
Novak Djokovic faced Alexander Zverev in the closing stages of the Australian Open, the Tokyo Olympics and the US Open – now the two will clash in Turin as the World No. 1 targets his eighth appearance in the final of the season-ending championships.
Should Djokovic reach that final, he could face Daniil Medvedev for the fourth time in 2021 after they played in the finals of the Australian Open, the US Open and the Rolex Paris Masters. That is, if Medvedev gets past the challenge of Casper Ruud, the only one of the four semi-finalists who is not a former Nitto ATP Finals champion.
Djokovic will be aiming to avoid a repeat of last year’s tournament, when he was edged out of the season finale at the semi-final stage. He could hardly have advanced through the group stage more cleanly, defeating Ruud 7-6(4), 6-2 and Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-2 to win the Green Group. But Zverev should be a much tougher challenge. Djokovic leads the ATP Head2Head 7-3, but their past four matches have gone past straight sets.
This will be the third clash between them at the Nitto ATP Finals, where Zverev memorably defeated Djokovic 6-3, 6-4 to claim the title in 2018 after losing to the Serb during the group stage. Djokovic defeated Zverev 6-3, 7-6(4) in the group stages in 2020.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Zverev said. “It’s always interesting and close when we play each other, so I’m expecting another tough one… There will be a lot of long rallies, we will run a lot more and suffer, in a way, a lot more as well.
“I think every single match we have played has been close. We’ve needed to be at our best and one or two points decided the matches. I expect no different here as well.”
There’s less history between second seed Medvedev and Ruud, who have played each other twice, Medvedev winning both matches in straight sets. But history is no guarantee of future success. Just ask Ruud, who was 0-4 and on a nine-set losing streak against Rublev when he came back from 2-6 down to win 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(5) and reach the semi-finals on his Nitto ATP Finals debut.
“It is going to be another tough battle, different kind of player from today, but one of the best in the world,” Ruud said. “He has proven himself as one of the best over the past two or three years. I have played against him a couple of times and lost both, but I know a little bit about what I am going to face and it is going to be a fun challenge.”
Ruud will be up against an even more formidable streak – Medvedev’s eight-match winning streak at the Nitto ATP Finals. After going 0-3 on his debut in 2019, Medvedev has not lost a match, claiming the title unbeaten in 2020 and he is now 3-0 in Turin. The Russian had already won the Red Group by beating Hubert Hurkacz 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4 and Zverev 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-6(6) when he faced Jannik Sinner on Thursday night, and looked set for an early night when he led 6-0. However, the young Italian – and the passionate crowd – wanted more. They got it, as Medvedev finally overwhelmed Sinner’s resistance after two hours and 29 minutes, 6-0, 6-7(5), 7-6(8). The World No. 2 will not be short of winning momentum to bring into Saturday’s semi-finals.
In the doubles, World No. 1 pairing Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic will meet the British-American duo of Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury. The British-American duo had to beat the experienced Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah to clinch their place in the semi-finals but rose to the occasion, winning 7-5, 2-6, 11-9 to go 3-0.
Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert will be looking to reach their third season-ending championship final as a team after winning the title without dropping a set in 2019. Their route through the group stages has been more dramatic this time – they lost 11-13 in the Match Tie-break to Ram and Salisbury – but not as dramatic as that of their semi-final opponents Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos, who saved four match points as they came back from 4-6, 1-4 down to defeat Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek.
But all the remaining players can put the qualification scenarios and hypotheticals of round-robin play behind them. When they take to the court at the Pala Alpitour on Saturday, there are only two possibilities left – lose, and go home; win, and reach Sunday’s final.
ORDER OF PLAY – SATURDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2021
CENTRE COURT start 11:30 am
[2] R. Ram (USA) / J. Salisbury (GBR) vs [1] N. Mektic (CRO) / M. Pavic (CRO)
Not Before 2:00 pm
[2] D. Medvedev (RUS) vs [8] C. Ruud (NOR)
Not Before 6:30 pm
[4] M. Granollers (ESP) / H. Zeballos (ARG) vs [3] P. Herbert (FRA) / N. Mahut (FRA)
Not Before 9:00 pm
[1] N. Djokovic (SRB) vs [3] A. Zverev (GER)
Peng Shuai, 35, has not been heard from since she accused a top Chinese official of sexual assault.
