Nadal & Djokovic defeated: Dominic Thiem and Daniil Medvedev with a premiere
With Dominic Thiem or Daniil Medvedev there will not only be a premiere winner at the ATP Finals, in the overall package they both also achieved a one-off performance during the tournament.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Nov 22, 2020, 09:48 am
Matches against the legends of the sport are always special. Dominic Thiem mentions this more often, including yesterday Saturday. He trembled all over his body at match point in the second set, which explained his second serve far out of bounds ("I'm not supposed to say that, but I almost knew that I would make a double mistake").
During the on-court interview, Thiem had already confessed how tense he was in the entire tie-break. "Playing against legends like this is always special. Here in the final too. I thought I would be a little more relaxed after the win in New York, but that's not the case."
Thiem now hardly needs to hide from the "Big Three": 16 wins and "only" 18 defeats are now on his balance sheet against Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. Thiem leads 5: 2 against Federer, 6: 9 against Nadal, 5: 7 against Djokovic.
Thiem also achieved another special feature this week: He won the group of ten players who managed to defeat Nadal and Djokovic at the same tournament. What Federer coach Ivan Ljubicic also duly recognized: The Croat himself managed this feat in Indian Wells in 2010.
Medvedev follows Thiem in "Club 11"
But wait, were we writing about a group of ten players? Late on Saturday evening, this increased by another player: Daniil Medvedev is now a club member after his three-set success over Rafael Nadal. Medvedev had already won against Novak Djokovic in the preliminary round.
Admittedly: Due to the round robin system, the chances of a Nadal / Djokovic Doppler are higher than elsewhere - David Ferrer (2007), Robin Söderling (2009) and Roger Federer (2010) also managed their "double" at the season finale. What is unique, however, is that two players managed this feat at the same tournament. Of course, this is only possible at the ATP Finals.
Should Medvedev win on Sunday, he could also go one better: Then he would have defeated the current top 3 in the world in one go with Djokovic (1st), Nadal (2nd) and Thiem (3rd).