ATP final tournament debutant Jannik Sinner became an early semi-finalist

The second semi-finalist of the Nitto ATP Finals – the final tournament of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) taking place in Turin with a prize fund of $15 million – was its debutant Jannik Sinner, who reached the playoffs after Russian Daniil Medvedev. This became clear after Novak Djokovic, in his victorious penultimate meeting of the Green Group with Pole Hubert Hurkacz, lost one set, which was witnessed by a Kommersant correspondent. Evgeny Fedyakov.

Late on Wednesday, the second round of the Nitto ATP Finals revealed its first semi-finalist. It was Daniil Medvedev, who, following Andrei Rublev, beat Alexander Zverev in two games, guaranteeing himself a ticket to the playoffs from the Red Group. What the final alignment will be will become clear only on Friday, after Medvedev meets Carlos Alcaraz in the afternoon, and Rublev, who has lost all chances of a place in the semifinals, will play Zverev in the evening. Having won his third match, Medvedev will definitely retain his leadership position in the group, and if he loses, he will either remain ahead of Alcaraz and Zverev according to additional indicators, or will be behind the Spaniard. On Wednesday, at the post-match press conference, the Russian promised to show his maximum in the meeting with Alcaraz, since 200 rating points are worth it, and deliberate relaxation during such an important tournament can only do harm. And this approach, of course, should be considered absolutely correct.

In the Green Group, before the last round, the situation became even more confused. There, three could count on reaching the semifinals – Jannik Sinner and Holger Rune, who met each other late on Thursday evening, as well as Novak Djokovic, who played in the afternoon with Pole Hubert Hurkacz, who replaced the injured Stefanos Tsitsipas and did not qualify for the playoffs. Moreover, in order to maximize his chances of continuing the fight for the title, Djokovic needed to win in two games.

Hurkacz’s serve is currently one of the most powerful in the ATP. But Djokovic managed to overcome it at the end of the first set. Having won six points in a row in the tiebreaker, the Serb secured a decisive lead and began the second set in a great mood.

The problem was that in matches with Hurkac you cannot lose concentration even for a couple of minutes, and Djokovic in the fourth, fifth and sixth games had his thoughts somewhere very far away, could not take even one point in them and was no longer able to save the set.

In the third game, the Serbian tennis player played another series of five games won in a row, and in the end, despite Hurkacz’s 24 aces, he won in 2 hours 5 minutes – 7:6 (7:1), 4:6, 6:1. However, this victory did not guarantee anything for Djokovic. He could only end up in the semi-finals if Sinner had already beaten Rune after this number had been signed into print. With the opposite outcome of the match between two debutants in the final tournament, its six-time champion remained outside the playoffs.

At the post-game press conference, Djokovic, who spent 8 hours and 20 minutes on the court at the Pala Alpitour in three matches at the tournament and was aware of the uncertainty of his situation, did not seem a very friendly person.

“I can’t influence the evening match, so I’m not thinking about him, but about hugging my children,” said the tennis player, who is in Turin with his daughter and son, with a disappointed expression on his face.

But Sinner, even before the start of his third round match, was already in the semi-finals, which no Italian had ever achieved before in the final tournaments. This became clear after Djokovic handed Hurkac the second set. By and large, the success of the 22-year-old Italian, whose portraits have been hung all over Turin for the second week in a row to promote the Nitto ATP Finals, is absolutely natural. This fall, Sinner not only increased the level of his play, primarily in terms of stability, but also tried to competently prepare himself for the final tournament, trying not to overload. His decision to withdraw from the third round of the recent Paris Masters, where he would otherwise have had to play the day after the night’s match due to unfortunate scheduling, was absolutely the right one. After recent victories in Beijing and Vienna, Sinner approached the main tournament, which is held in his homeland, not only confident, but also in optimal physical condition. And the bonus in the form of the support of the public, which cheers for its young compatriot as loudly as at Juventus Turin football matches, could possibly become a key factor.