Alcaraz dreams of another debut in Turin | ATP Tour

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Alcaraz dreams of another debut in Turin

Zverev and Rublev will also play this Monday.

November 10, 2024

Two exciting rivalries will resume this Monday on the second day of the Nitto ATP Finals 2024. Carlos Alcaraz and Casper Ruud in the afternoon, and Alexander Zverev and Andrey Rublev in the evening, will meet for the first time this season. this time at the start of John Newcombe’s band in Turin.

In doubles, top seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic will face Germany’s Kevin Kravetz and Tim Puetz, before Italy’s Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori take on Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden.

(3) Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) vs. (6) Kasper Ruud (Norway)
Carlos Alcaraz’s first match at the Nitto ATP Finals fell far short of the Spaniard’s expectations. It was twelve months ago against Alexander Zverev and he ended up losing to him in the third set. Despite making it through the group stage before losing to eventual champions in the semi-finals, the PIF ATP ranking number three wants this tournament to start differently.

He will have the opportunity to achieve this this Monday when he faces Norway’s Casper Ruud. But even though he leads the Lexus ATP HeadToHead with a 4-0 score, it will be a tough start against a player who has shown that Turin conditions suit him well. The semi-final in 2021 and the final in 2022 in their latest participation proves this.

“I came here with a lot of motivation and a little different than last year,” Alcaraz said before starting his second appearance in the event, which he missed in 2022 due to injury. “I’m approaching this tournament a little differently, knowing what I have – this is what I have: ‘I need to change if I want to do well and go far.’

The last meeting between them took place more than a year ago in Beijing, when the Spaniard won in straight sets in the quarterfinals. This time they will meet indoors for the first time, knowing that defeat does not equal elimination.

Ruud himself is living proof of this. He lost on his debut in 2021 (d to Djokovic) and emerged victorious in 2022 (d to Auger-Aliassime). In both cases they made it through the group stage. However, his motivation is to beat the four-time Grand Slam champion for the first time and add his 50th victory of the season.

“His career is almost legendary,” the Norwegian said of his opponent. “I love watching him play. This is very good for sports. I don’t necessarily like playing with him all the time because he’s so cool. It usually comes down to funny moments. He’s so electric that he can throw any punch.”

(2) Alexander Zverev (Germany) vs. (8) Andrey Rublev
Another old rivalry will be renewed this Monday in Turin, exactly where they last faced each other twelve months ago. The German’s group stage victory saw him leave the Lexus ATP head-to-head with a 6-3 scoreline and end a three-match losing streak with Rublev.

“He is a powerful and extremely fast player,” the German said of Rublev. “Try to get over yourself. The most important thing against him is not to leave him.” A year ago, both were eliminated after that meeting at the 2023 Nitto ATP Finals.

This time they have much more reason to think they can reach the semi-finals, especially given what they did this year when they both became ATP Masters 1000 champions, Zverev in Rome and Paris and Rublev in Madrid.

“In 2023, I didn’t feel competitive in major competitions. “I was very far from winning them,” Zverev said in Turin. “To be able to compete and reach a Grand Slam final, win the Masters 1000 (this year) is a big satisfaction for me because obviously there were doubts about whether I could do it again after the injury.”

While Zverev secured his return to the Nitto ATP Finals on September 1 when he reached the quarterfinals of the US Open, Rublev had to struggle during the final week of the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. But, in any case, she managed to ensure her presence at the tournament for the fifth time in a row.

“It doesn’t matter what negative thoughts I had this season or the year wasn’t that good. But actually I was able to get here,” Rublev said ahead of his debut at the Nitto ATP Finals, the tournament where he exited the group stage in 2022. “And to get here you have to have a very good season. “

He now has the opportunity to add his fifth win in a tournament in which he has played 14 games so far. Doing this against a member of the top 2 will allow him to continue to grow in confidence, an element that fully allowed him to defeat the two best players of the year in 2024: Sinner (in Canada) and Alcaraz (in Madrid).

double action
Top seeds Arevalo and Pavic combined to win four titles in their first season as a team, including Roland Garros and the ATP Masters 1000 in Cincinnati. The Salvador/Croat pair, the first doubles pair to qualify for Turin this year, also reached the final of the Rome Masters 1000. On Monday they will face Krawiec and Puetz, the 2019 and 2020 Roland Garros champions, whose only title in 2024 was won on home soil in Hamburg.

Bolelli and Vavassori finished fourth in Turin, having won three titles this season, one on each surface. Their rivals, sixth seeds Bopanna and Ebden, won the Australian Open and Miami Open crowns in 2024.