LONDON: Rafael Nadal kept alive his hopes of a first ATP Finals title on Thursday, beating defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in London to qualify for the last four.
The Spaniard, whose haul of 86 singles titles includes just one on indoor hard courts, is chasing the biggest prize missing from his resume at the eight-man elite event.
The 34-year-old has qualified for the ATP Finals for a record 16 consecutive years but has been forced to withdraw on six occasions.
The second seed won his opening round-robin match against Andrey Rublev but defeat against Dominic Thiem meant he faced a shootout against 2019 champion Tsitsipas to reach the semifinals. Both players were rock solid on serve until Nadal earned the first two break points of the set in the seventh game, which he failed to convert.
Tsitsipas was again under pressure in his next service game and this time he cracked, double-faulting on break point.
Nadal pressed home his advantage, serving consecutive aces to take the set 6-4 against his 22-year-old opponent.
The Spaniard, twice a finalist at the tournament, had another chance to break in the first game of the second set but the Greek sixth seed dug himself out of danger with a searing backhand.
Tsitsipas did well to cling on against his illustrious opponent who was serving with metronomic efficiency and dominating the longer rallies.
But out of nowhere the Greek earned two set points on Nadal’s serve and levelled when the Spaniard double-faulted on the second of those.
The match took a bizarre twist at the start of the decider, with neither player able to hold serve until Nadal finally held to lead 3-1.
An over-hit forehand from Tsitsipas handed Nadal another break and he served out to take the match and set up a semifinal against Daniil Medvedev as he bids to round off the coronavirus-interrupted season in style.
‘POSITIVE MATCH’
“In general terms a very positive match for me,” said Nadal. “To be in the semifinals here at the last tournament of the year is an important thing. Happy for that and looking forward to the semifinals against Daniil.”
He added: “It’s always difficult to play here against the best players of the world every single day, end of the season and most of the time you get here a little bit tired but this year is a little bit different.”
Earlier on Thursday, Thiem, who had already qualified for the semifinals, slumped to a 6-2, 7-5 defeat against debutant Rublev in a dead rubber.
“With the fact that I was already qualified in the back of my mind, it was maybe difficult today to keep that intensity alive,” said Thiem, who had already clinched top spot in Group London 2020. — AFP
ATP Finals results
Singles — Group London 2020
Andrey Rublev (RUS x7) bt Dominic Thiem (AUT x3) bt 6-2, 7-5
Rafael Nadal (ESP x2) bt Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE x6) 6-4, 4-6, 6-2
Doubles — Group Mike Bryan
Lukasz Kubot/Marcelo Melo (POL/BRA x8) bt Wesley Koolhof/Nikola Mektic (NED/CRO x5) 6-4, 6-7 (2/7), 10-8
Rajeev Ram/Joe Salisbury (USA/GBR x2) bt Kevin Krawietz/Andreas Mies (GER/GER x3) 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (4/7), 10-4
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