Former ATP World Tour Finals champions Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev will be aiming to book their place in the semi-finals by winning when they meet each other on Wednesday.
The round-robin match will be a repeat of the 2021 final, which also took place in Turin, with Zverev triumphing 6-4 6-4 on that occasion.
Match preview
Medvedev gained his first slice of revenge by beating his close friend and compatriot Andrey Rublev on Monday, with the 2021 US Open champion prevailing 6-2 6-4 after only 91 minutes. Rublev had beaten Medvedev at the round-robin stage in last year's season-ending championship.
Medvedev's fellow Russian was uncharacteristically sloppy when making several unforced errors to drop serve in the seventh game of the first set, before Medvedev displayed his trademark defensive qualities by saving seven break points across his next two service games to claim the first set.
Clearly, these missed opportunities weighed on Rublev's mind after the interval, with the 26-year-old dropping serve at the beginning of the second set. Medvedev's victory never looked in doubt thereafter, as he began his campaign as he will mean to go on.
Indeed, the 27-year-old will be determined to secure a second ATP Finals title, especially having missed out on adding to his only Grand Slam title when losing in straight sets to Novak Djokovic at the US Open final in September.
However, Zverev may have something to say about his forthcoming opponents' chances of ending the season on the ultimate high, especially having come into strong form himself during the second half of the campaign.
The German missed several months of action after tearing three lateral ligaments in his ankle against Rafael Nadal at the French Open in June 2022, an injury which came at the worst possible moment considering that he had just reached a career high ranking of No. 2 in the world.
However, after a long road to recovery following surgery, the 26-year-old reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros for the third successive season, before losing to Carlos Alcaraz at the quarter-final stage of the US Open.
Despie losing the opening set on a tie-breaker, Zverev proved too strong for the Spaniard in their opening round-robin encounter on Monday, prevailing 6-3 6-4 in the ensuing two sets. As expected, the encounter featured some spectacular shots throughout, but Zverev's greater experience against the ATP Finals debutant helped him come through with a victory ahead of Wednesday's showdown against Medvedev.
Tournament so far
Daniil Medvedev:
Round-robin: vs. Andrey Rublev 6-4 6-2
Alexander Zverev:
Round-robin: vs. Carlos Alcaraz 6-7[3] 6-3 6-4
Head To Head
Medvedev and Zverev have faced each other 17 times throughout their careers. The Russian leads the head-to-head with 10 wins to Zverev's seven. We have more details on their five meetings earlier this year below:
Beijing (2023) - Semi-final: Medvedev def. Zverev 6-4 6-3
Cincinnati (2023) - Last-16: Zverev def. Medvedev 6-4 5-7 6-4
Rome (2023) - Last-16: Medvedev def. Zverev 6-2 7-6[3]
Monte-Carlo (2023) - Last-16: Medvedev def. Zverev 3-6 7-5 7-6[7]
Indian Wells (2023) - Last-16: Medvedev def. Zverev 6-7[5] 7-6[5] 7-5
As you can see, Medvedev has dominated his recent encounters against Zverev, winning four of their five meetings earlier this year. In fact, going back to 2020, Medevdev has won nine of the last 11 matches between these two.
Interestingly, Medvedev won both of their matches on clay this season, which would generally be considered the Russian's weakest surface. Zverev, on the other hand, has three semi-final and two quarter-final appearances at the French Open to his name, so is clearly highly proficient on the red stuff.
At the ATP Finals - which is always played on an indoor hard court - the pair have shared the spoils with two wins apiece, but it was Zverev who claimed the most important victory when lifting the title at the Russian's expense in the final in 2021.
We say: Medvedev to win in three sets
Medvedev looked relatively comfortable when dispatching Rublev on Monday, and could therefore be fresher than Zverev, who needed three sets to defeat Alcaraz. However, that victory was a highly impressive one and proved that the German is back to producing his best levels of tennis.
We expect to see a closely-fought encounter with plenty of long rallies between two players who largely enjoy sticking to the baseline, but Medvedev has clearly held the edge against Zverev in recent battles, and we can envisage that continuing on Wednesday.
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