For the second time in three days at the ATP Finals, Rafael Nadal fought off one...
LONDON - For the second time in three days at the ATP Finals, Rafael Nadal fought off one of the game’s rising powers but beating Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas proved in vain as his semi-final hopes vanished on Friday.
Sadly for Nadal, and all those who were looking forward to him taking on Roger Federer in Saturday’s semi-finals, Germany’s defending champion Alexander Zverev had not read the script. Had that happened he would have topped the group. Instead, Zverev’s clinical 6-4 7-6 win relegated Nadal to third despite also having two wins. Tsitsipas won the group while Zverev took second place courtesy of his head-to-head advantage over Nadal who he beat impressively on Monday.
Tsitsipas must now recover from his near three-hour loss to Nadal to face Federer in Saturday’s first semi-final before Zverev takes on Austrian Dominic Thiem.Federer’s win to knock out Novak Djokovic on Thursday meant Nadal will end the year as number one for the fifth time. “Honestly, what can I say? I am super happy,” Nadal, the oldest man to finish a year ranked number one, told the crowd. “After all the things that I went through in my career in terms of injuries, I never thought at the age of 33 and a half that I will have this trophy in my hands again.”
Tsitsipas saved break points at 2-2 and 3-3 but Nadal was now in hunting mode and at 4-4 he finally cornered his prey to break for the first time.
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