ATP Finals London: Stefanos Tsitsipas - defending champion with little momentum
Like last year, Stefanos Tsitsipas is not one of the biggest favorites before the start of the ATP Finals in London. Can the Greek defending champion surprise again in 2020?
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Nov 14, 2020, 04:00 pm
Yes, Stefanos Tsitsipas' results in the run-up to the ATP Finals may have been a little better in 2019 than this year. Last season the Greek reached the semi-finals in Basel (defeat against Roger Federer) and the quarter-finals at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Paris-Bercy, where he lost to Novak Djokovic . In the current campaign, the end in Vienna came in round two against Grigor Dimitrov , in Paris it was over after the first match after a wild match against Ugo Humbert.
Tsitsipas goes into the last big highlight of the tennis year without much momentum, especially in Vienna he didn't seem quite fit. The defending champion is by no means to be underestimated. On big occasions, Tsitsipas can often shift into a higher gear, see for example the two encounters with Andrey Rublev this fall: While Tsitsipas let the tournament win slip through his fingers after taking the lead in the third set in Hamburg, he turned Roland Garros in the quarter-finals turn the tables. And defeated Rublev, who he will meet in London in the group stage, in three sets.
Tsitsipas 2020 never against Thiem or Nadal
But Tsitsipas will kick off in the O2 Arena in London against Dominic Thiem , his final opponent of 2019. There have been seven matches between the two so far, on Sunday at 3 p.m. (live on Sky and in our live ticker) Tsitsipas could balance the balance. The shortened year 2020 means that Thiem and Tsitsipas have not played against each other since that three-sentence crime thriller in November 2019.
Even against his third group opponent, Rafael Nadal , Stefanos Tsitsipas has not played a game this year, the only game against Alexander Zverev was played at the ATP Cup. In addition to Rublev, only Novak Djokovic was allowed to test Tsitsipas more than once. With success. Djokovic won the two matches in the final in Dubai and in the semifinals of Roland Garros.
This is one of the difficult side effects of the COVID-19 situation, explained Tsitsipas during his press conference on Media Day on Friday in London. The tennis fans fell over many good matches in 2020.
Federer lost at the beginning of 2019
Starting on Sunday, the cards will be reshuffled one last time this season. An opening defeat doesn't have to be a drama. For example, Roger Federer lost to Dominic Thiem in 2019, but still made it to the semi-finals. And Tsitsipas also had to digest a bankruptcy on the way to the title. However, it came in the third and for him already meaningless group match against Rafael Nadal.
The last two defending champions did differently at the ATP Finals: Grigor Dimitrov, winner in London 2017, was unable to qualify for the year-end the following year. Alexander Zverev, who won in the O2 Arena in 2018, only failed in the semifinals to Dominic Thiem the following year.
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