NexGen Finals

[jimlosaltos]

Just when you thought the ATP season was over, like a Vegematic TV ad the tour yells "But Wait! There's More!"

Top seed, Arthur Fils, beat Domnic Stricker this am, but both are through to the semifinals.
Who they face will be determined in tonight's match.

https://www.nextgenatpfinals.com/en/news/stricker-fils-jeddah-2023-thursday

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[jimlosaltos]

Various highlight videos can be found here along with some profile vids of potential greats:

https://www.nextgenatpfinals.com/en/video

[jimlosaltos]

Semifinalists, presumably meeting tomorrow are:

1) The two French entrants, both 19 yo, Arthur Fils and Luca.Van Assche

2) Hamad. Medjedovic, 20 yo of Serbia, Dominic Stricker , 21 yo of Switzerland.

Fils in the top seed, and the highest ranked at 36.

[jimlosaltos]

Fils is apparently generating some buzz for doing his version of Ronaldo's "Sir" celebration.

Where you can see here on X aka The Web Site Formerly Known as Twitter (TWSFKW)

https://x.com/nextgenfinals/status/1729877195466936492?s=20

[jimlosaltos]

Finals are set. Hamad Medjedovic advanced to the Next Gen ATP Finals vs top seed Arthur Fils in the title match.

Both players were undefeated in their groups.

Medjedovic, a 20 yo Serbian is ranked 100, is coached by Viktor Troicki, reached ATP Tour semi-finals in Gstaad and Astana, and won three ATP Challenger Tour trophies in 2023.

Fils is the youngest player in the NexGen event and the top seed. Ranked 36, the 19-year-old captured his first ATP Tour trophy on home soil in Lyon, reached the final in Antwerp and semi-finals in Montpellier, Marseille and Hamburg. Coach
Laurent Raymond

[stroke]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VqpfMiRnxgPDteWB9

[jimlosaltos]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VqpfMiRnxgPDteWB9

Am I reading this correctly, that Arthur Fils won every single sports test, in this event preceding the NexGen tournament?

[jimlosaltos]

To go along with the results of the athletic tests, it should be noted that Arthur Fils' forehand velocity is at the same level or higher than Djokovic's when he beat Sinner in the ATP Tour Finals that many (ok, me) gushed about.

Djokovic ave 86 MPH for 4 games before settling down.

Fils also reached 86 MPH (138 kph per announcers) but for a longer stretch, ending up at 137 kph AVERAGE for this third set and 134 kph / 84 mph for his entire semifinal match of 25 games plus two 7 point tiebreaks.

I believe the technical, tennis term is "Severe Thumpage"


Speed is toward your lower-right in red in Nexen image from Tennis TV:

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[stroke]

Fils is an absolute physical stud. A running back type muscular build, very mature build for his age, reminiscent of Nadal.

[jimlosaltos]

Small surprise. Where will Medjedovic go from here?

ATP: "The Serbian took large cuts at the ball, won 88 per cent (61/69) of points on his first delivery and converted his third match point to fire past the 19-year-old Frenchman 3-4(6), 4-1, 4-2, 3-4(9), 4-1 after two hours and 11 minutes.

Next Gen ATP Finals Champions:

2017: Hyeon Chung
2018: Stefanos Tsitsipas
2019: Jannik Sinner
2021: Carlos Alcaraz
2022: Brandon Nakashima
2023: Hamad Medjedovic

Won based on his service? TDI rating is "top shelf"

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[jimlosaltos]

Here's a photo from the NexGen finals showing Serbian Viktor Troicki coaching winner Hamad Medjedovic during the finals in Jeddah.
He has the TDI data stream up on a tablet as one of two monitors in mounts on the barrier.
His screen, which I've enlarged is the ATP "Second Screen" you can sporadically find on the ATP web site. This shows live data as a graphic of the placement of shots, for either player.

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