ATP Finals

[jimlosaltos]

Turin, aka Torino, aka the Nitto ATP Finals is only a week away, so we might as well put up a preview.

Dates: Nov 12-19 Site: Pala Alpitour arena with 12,350 capacity.
TV schedule: https://www.nittoatpfinals.com/en/tv-schedule

Newslines include: Djoko looking to break his tie with Fed for 6 titles. Tsitsipas qualified for 5th straight year. Sinner playing to home crowd.

Singles entrants:

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Doubles

At this link:

https://www.nittoatpfinals.com/en/players/doubles

News:

https://www.nittoatpfinals.com/en/news

[jimlosaltos]

Cross posted in Paris, for no reason I can now think of. I was reading there about Djokovic I guess. Sigh.

Play starts Sunday. Djokovic & Sinner, playing in is home town, are in the same group.

ATP: Four of the eight singles competitors have lifted the trophy before. Djokovic (6x), Zverev (2x), Medvedev and Tsitsipas have all earned the ultimate championship in the sport.

SINGLES
Green Group: Novak Djokovic (1), Jannik Sinner (4), Stefanos Tsitsipas (6), Holger Rune (8)

Red Group: Carlos Alcaraz (2), Daniil Medvedev (3), Andrey Rublev (5), Alexander Zverev (7)

The defending champions are Ram and Salisbury. Bopanna and Ebden, Gonzalez and Roger-Vasselin, Gonzalez and Molteni and Hijikata and Kubler are all making their team debuts at the Nitto ATP Finals.

DOUBLES
Green Group:
Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek (1), Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin (4), Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos (5) and Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni (7)

Red Group: Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski (2), Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden (3), Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury (6) and Rinky Hijikata and Jason Kubler (8)

[jimlosaltos]

New analysis by Craig O'Shenessy posted on the ATP site surprised me.
I know Stef Tsitsipas has a good serve, but per Craig he is the best of all 8 finalists in Turin at holding serve.
Cross posting this to older item on Tsitis' serve.

Craig: "Stefanos Tsitsipas is a holding serve machine. Tsitsipas has averaged being broken once out of every 8.4 of his service games in 2023, making him the leader of the pack chasing end-of-season glory in Turin. The other two players who elevated over the seven-game threshold were Novak Djokovic (7.9) and Jannik Sinner (7.6).

2023 Season: Average Service Games Per Break
1. Tsitsipas - 8.4
2. Djokovic - 7.9
3. Sinner - 7.6
4. Alcaraz - 6.6
5. Medvedev - 6.4
6. Rublev - 6.2
7. Zverev - 6.1
8. Rune - 5.7

If you postulate an average set score being 6-3, Tsitsipas will typically be broken just once in a straight-sets match. Holger Rune, on the other hand, is nudging closer to twice a match—especially if the score is tighter, such as 6-4, 6-4.

Not surprisingly, Tsitsipas leads the ATP Tour in percentage of service games won in 2023, at 88.72 per cent (826/931). Djokovic is in second place at 88.53 per cent (625/706), while Sinner sits in sixth place overall at 87.06 per cent (747/858).

[jimlosaltos]

Less surprinsgly, Carlos Alcaraz has, in terms of breaks, the best return of the 8 top ranked players on the ATP.

Again, per Craig O'Shannessy

ATP:
Alcaraz is breaking serve every 3.08 games, closely followed by Medvedev (3.13) and Sinner (3.36). Tsitsipas now sits in last place, breaking serve on average once every 5.05 games.

2023 Season: Average Return Games Per Break
1. Alcaraz - 3.08
2. Medvedev - 3.15
3. Sinner - 3.36
4. Djokovic - 3.38
5. Rublev - 3.98
6. Zverev - 4.26
7. Rune - 4.58
8. Tsitsipas - 5.05

Djokovic toiled through three tough three-set matches to reach the final in Paris, mainly due to his inability to break serve as often as normal. Djokovic has broken every 3.38 games throughout the season, but that dropped down to an average of 4.93 games in Paris.

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/tsitsipas-serve-infosys-btn-november-2023

[jimlosaltos]

Schedule for Nov 12 start

Tsitisipas leads Sinner 5-2 H2H but Sinner has improved a good deal this year, particularly in the second half, on the way to a 57-14 record incl Masters 1000 in Toronto.

Djokovic - Rune are 2-2 but I'm not sure if Rune is 100% back from his injury and time off tour yet.

Sinner vs Tsitsipas not before 2:30 pm
Djokovic vs Rune not before 9 PM

Doubles

Dodig / Kjrajicek vs Gonzalez/ Molteni
S Gonzalez/ Roger-Vasselin vs Granolers/ Zeballos

[stroke]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tfUeBjshCm7ViZhn6

Sinner routines Tsitsipas 4 and 4. A bad matchup for Tsitsipas. His backhand return of serve a real problem facing the Sinner firepower. And overall it seems there is just way too much pressure on the Tsitsipas forehand
to do most all of the heavy lifting for him in this matchup. Sinner so strong off both wings. And a huge pro Sinner crowd on hand.

[stotty]

Novak wins another tight match. It's not as if he's head and shoulders above his opponents in many of his matches, it's just that he wins virtually all of them.

It was a great match. Rune is blistering at times. He just lost his composure towards the end of the match.

[jimlosaltos]

And, they're off. Singles groups and standings after day one.

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[jimlosaltos]

Doubles groups and standings

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[jimlosaltos]

Tomorrow (Monday, Nov 13th) singles matches

Alcaraz vs Zverev "not before 5:30 am", which I assume is my PST

Medvedev vs Rublev second match "not before 12 pm" PST.

Doubles

Kooolhof/Skupskis vs Hijikata/Kubler
Bopana/Ebden vs Ram/Salisbury

[stroke]

https://www.tennis365.com/tennis-news/daniil-medvedev-disagrees-stefanos-tsitsipas-controversial-atp-finals-claim

[stroke]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ofvRyeAxCBZ6KjMu9

[stroke]

Zverev and Alcaraz deep in 3rd set. I do not know who will win, but I do know Zverev needs to lose his multiple necklaces while playing tennis. I cannot imagine the Novak, Fed, or Rafa playing with that monstrosity going on.

[jimlosaltos]

Anyone heard anything on the court speed/ speed of play?

Going in I heard Turin was like the Tour Finals have been for several years -- slow but low bouncing.

What I'm seeing is aces left and right. Zverev had 16 in beating Alcaraz, statistically the best returner on tour now. Holger Rune had 18 vs Djokovic last night. I hear Novak is a decent returner as well

By the way, Novak and Rune-AH came to the net a combined 56 times or 1/4 of their points. Nothing sounds like a slow court to me.

[jimlosaltos]

Among latest from ATP Tennis Insights -- 2nd serve return location.

For years, I heard part of Novak's great return was going deep up the middle. If so, he's shifted to focusing on his opponents' backhands.
Meanwhile, Jannik is the one going deep up the middle.

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