Turin aka ATP Tour Finals

[stotty]

Rublev v Ruud

Well, it's demolition so far. Ruud is playing exceptionally well and Rublev hasn't turned up.

6-2 4-1

[stroke]

The Goblin is going to need to do some soul searching after this complete mental meltdown vs Ruud. Ruud, with his ultra professional demeanor out there, a worst case opponent for meltdown.

[stotty]

Great performance from Ruud. Although he has no positive history against Novak, I give him more chance in the final than if Rublev had gotten through.

[jimlosaltos]

ATP has this odd comparison using new stats they've contrived to show relative performance in key areas.
Without knowing their mythology I find it hard to get anything out of these, but I suppose it's good that they're saying more goes into good shot-making than speed and spin.

	Djokovic	Ruud	Tour Avg.
In Attack	24.9%	22.5%	23%
Conversion Score	73.6%	71.2%	66%
Steal Score	37.1%	33.1%	34%
Serve Quality	8.47	8.36	7.5
Return Quality	7.59	6.81	6.5
Forehand Quality	8.91	8.54	7
Backhand Quality	7.71	7.62	7.2

[stotty]

Well, the final was a masterclass by Novak, a baseline masterclass and a serving masterclass. He served superbly to set up his baseline dominance.

Robbie Koenig thinks when Novak is assertive and unloading his ground shots it's one of the best sights in tennis, the immaculate timing and ease in which he does it. It's hard to disagree with Robbie on that one. It's not that Ruud played badly, it's just he couldn't match Novak. He needed to get to the net more but I'm not sure, from what I have seen, he has the volley skills to do it.

Great final. the ball striking from both players was terrific.

[jimlosaltos]

Djokovic hit his forehand with more velocity in the final than his prior matches in Turn, likely flattening out -- and neutralizing -- the high-kick Ruud forehand. Then he went after the backhand and dominated second-serve points. That's it. Ruud simply isn't (yet?) comfortable enough coming forward to make Novak uncomfortable. Still great run for Ruud at this event and for the year, as the only ATP player to make 3 finals at the four biggest events, the 'majors and the Tour Final. Djokovic collects the largest single payout in tennis tournament history, $4.7 Million. For scale, three years ago Simona Halep won the WTA Tour final and collected $300k. About what Djokovic will tip the bellman.

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[stroke]

Well, the final was a masterclass by Novak, a baseline masterclass and a serving masterclass. He served superbly to set up his baseline dominance.

Robbie Koenig thinks when Novak is assertive and unloading his ground shots it's one of the best sights in tennis, the immaculate timing and ease in which he does it. It's hard to disagree with Robbie on that one. It's not that Ruud played badly, it's just he couldn't match Novak. He needed to get to the net more but I'm not sure, from what I have seen, he has the volley skills to do it.

Great final. the ball striking from both players was terrific.

Ruud, a great player, and in my top 5 FO favorites(Nadal, Novak, Alcaraz, Ruud, Rune) , does not have the volley skills to do that. Once again, this generation is fortunate the 3 are not early 20's again. They would not win hardly any Majors or Master's 1000's, kind of like Stan and Murray maybe. Even though that is interesting speculation, this generation vs a prime Stan or Murray.