That’s all from me today, but this is just the beginning. We will be back tomorrow. Here is Kevin Mitchell’s report from day one at the O2.
So, a perfect start for Rafael Nadal in London. Despite the fact that he failed to make the semi-final last year, Nadal’s indoor season was really encouraging. After taking some time to recover his level after an injury in Paris, he finished 2019 playing some top level tennis in his final matches of London and then during his incredible Davis Cup run.
Considering everything back then stemmed from how well he was serving, this serving performance is very encouraging as he looks to reach that level of serving again. We’ll see.
Rafael Nadal:
I think it has been a positive start for me. Always, the first match is very tricky. Here, every match is difficult, you play against the best of the best so very happy, sorry for Rublo [sic] but I wish him the very best for the rest of the tournament. He had an amazing season even under these very difficult conditions. We had the season and he was able to win a lot of titles so it’s an important victory for me.
Rafael Nadal defeats Andrey Rublev 6-3, 6-4
A strong, comfortable win for Nadal who served extremely well throughout and punished Rublev for sloppy play in both sets.
Rublev should be disappointed with his level and how quickly his shoulders dropped after the first break. He’ll have two more matches to put it right.
Updated
Rafael Nadal 6-3 *5-4 Andrey Rublev: Good fight from Rublev to force Nadal to serve it out, surviving deuce. After pulling Rublev back to deuce from 40-30, Nadal threw in a poor netted forehand at deuce. Rublev followed with a booming combination of forehands, eventually drawing an error from Nadal with a great winning inside-in forehead. Nadal will serve for the win.
Rafael Nadal 6-3 5-3* Andrey Rublev: Sadly for Rublev, it doesn’t look like h has much fight left here. From 15-15, he threw in two sloppy forehands to help Nadal on to game point. Nadal obliged pummelling a great inside out forehand to hold. He is one game away.
Rafael Nadal 6-3 *4-3 Andrey Rublev: Rublev keeps himself in the match with a very good love hold, sealed with two unreturned serves and two aces in under a minute. He is serving pretty darn well from behind, but he only has two chances left to create his first break point of the day on Nadal’s serve.
Rafael Nadal 6-3 4-2* Andrey Rublev: Nadal really doesn’t look in any trouble here. After a searing crosscourt forehand winner from the Spaniard to move up 30-0, Rublev helped him out with consecutive forehand errors. Another hold on the board.
Rolling on' 👌
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) November 15, 2020
An expert serve plus one from @RafaelNadal #NittoATPFinals pic.twitter.com/cEDZdfniJy
Rafael Nadal 6-3 *3-2 Andrey Rublev: This time, it did work for Rublev. He keeps himself just one break from Nadal with a hold to 30, shutting the door with a huge inside out forehand winner. It certainly looks good when it lands in.
Rafael Nadal 6-3 3-1* Andrey Rublev: Nadal moves through a far less eventful hold, producing more great serving before finishing with some great defence, eventually goading Rublev into a forehand error with a series of backhand slices.
Rublev has done an excellent job of finding balance in his game this year, better understanding when and whe he should attack. But at this level, the one dimensional nature of his game can be exposed. He will continue to pummel forehands until, he hopes, something changes.
Rafael Nadal 6-3 *2-1 Andrey Rublev: Rublev quickly keeps himself in touch with three consecutive aces from 15-15 to hold from 15. He could have done with serving like this sooner.
Rafael Nadal 6-3 2-0* Andrey Rublev: Nadal recovered well after a sloppy start in his own service games, moving from 0-30 to 40-30 behind some great serving. Nadal shanked a forehand wide to bring himself to deuce, but he found yet another timely huge serve at deuce. After a wild forehand return from Rublev, Nadal holds. Not quite good enough from Rublev.
Rafael Nadal 6-3 *1-0 Andrey Rublev:
This could unravel quickly. Rublev fell down 15-40 after a couple of errors, including a double fault. He saved the two break points well, only to fire a backhand wide at deuce.
On the third break point, Rublev got it all wrong, reacting too slowly to an aggressive Nadal return while stuck in no man’s land between the service line and baseline. Rublev could only drive volley Nadal’s return, sending his response into the net.
Rafael Nadal can have no issues with his level so far today. He is serving extremely well and he broke serve with a lovely combination of point-ending down-the-line forehands and irritating slices.
Rublev just missed too many first serves at points in his first set and his forehand wasn’t as clean as it needs to be. Part nerves, part pressure from Nadal. Given how many matches he has won this year, he really should be able to brush the set off and come again.
Rafael Nadal 6-3 Andrey Rublev
Rafael Nadal takes the first set 6-3 against Rublev, sealing things with another love hold and another unreturned serve.
Rafael Nadal *5-3 Andrey Rublev: Rublev breezes through his first love hold of the match, finally finding his first serve with three in a row to open the game. At 40-0, he came up with a lovely kick second serve to force an error from Nadal. Nadal will serve for the set.
Rafael Nadal 5-2* Andrey Rublev: Nadal looked to be easing to another simple hold, only for Rublev to produce two excellent backhands in a row from 40-15: a down-the-line return winner followed by a deep crosscourt backhand.
He couldn’t find a third. At deuce, Rublev sent a backhand down-the-line just wide. Nadal made no mistake on the third game point, finding an excellent body serve to consolidate the break.
Rafael Nadal *4-2 Andrey Rublev: Nadal takes the first break as Rublev tosses his racquet in despair. Rublev missed far too many first serves and Nadal made him pay for it.
The Spaniard came up with the shot of the match at 40-30, curling a ridiculous angled backhand passing shot winner. Rublev found himself at advantage, but Nadal pulled him back to deuce and then generated the first break point with a huge forehand down the line. Rublev saved the break point well, but Nadal unfurled another big forehand down-the-line to bring up a second break point. This time, Nadal threw in an excellent series of slices to Rublev’s forehand, eventually drawing out the error. Well played.
Rafael Nadal 3-2* Andrey Rublev: A third easy hold for Nadal, who fires down another series of effortless, huge serves. He missed an easy finishing forehand at 40-0 but then responded with a bit unreturned serve down the T.
Rafael Nadal *2-2 Andrey Rublev: This has been an extremely good start on serve from both players. Rublev responds to Nadal’s quick service game with a hold to 15. Two searing forehand winners and two unreturned serves. Easy.
Nadal is looking to be very aggressive on Rublev’s second serve so far, moving inside the baseline to take it early. Rublev’s improvement on both first and second serves has been one of the reasons for his great success this year and we’ll see how it withstands any pressure today.
Rafael Nadal 2-1* Andrey Rublev: Nadal flits through a love hold, closing off this service game with a slick serve-forehand 1-2 punch followed by another unreturned serve. Early days, but he is serving well so far.
Rafael Nadal *1-1 Andrey Rublev:
Rublev steadies any nerves he may have had with a solid hold to 30. From 30-30, Nadal attacked two second serve returns and sent both well long. A couple of free points that he hopes will dissipate as he plays himself into the match.
Rafael Nadal 1-0* Andrey Rublev: Rafael Nadal opens with a quick hold to 15 with ample first serves, closing it off with an unreturned serve.
Rublev gave a small glimpse of what he hopes will transpire, pummelling a typical winning forehand cross-court at 40-0.
Rafael Nadal will serve first.
A Sunday showdown with Andrey and Rafa 🌟
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) November 15, 2020
Who will join Thiem with a win on Day 1?
Watch live 👉 https://t.co/hOHmv2wMlX pic.twitter.com/hXTqkhDqG5
Fantastic insight 🙌@Andy_Murray explains how to get the better of Rafa Nadal... #NittoATPFinals pic.twitter.com/huwVDUtx71
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) November 15, 2020
Rafael Nadal and Andrey Rublev have arrived on-court. A five minute warm-up stands between us and the first point.
Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury win their opening match 7-5 3-6 10-5 against Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot.
Quite a story. Salisbury and Ram were forced to withdraw from the Paris Masters two weeks ago after Salisbury’s coach, Rob Morgan, tested positive for Covid-19. Salisbury was forced to quarantine for two weeks. He emerged from the quarantine yesterday, practiced twice and then took to the court today. No problem.
All business 👀
— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 15, 2020
🇪🇸 @RafaelNadal is ready to start his #NittoATPFinals campaign against Andrey Rublev!#ATPTour pic.twitter.com/PfLfuHWrWd
Meanwhile, Rajeev Ram and Britain’s Joe Salisbury are into a match tiebreak against Lukaz Kubot and Marcelo Melo after splitting sets 7-5, 3-6 in the doubles.
Updated
Here is Kevin Mitchell’s first glimpse of the final edition of the ATP Finals at thee O2 Arena.
A blast from the past. Andrey Rublev dressed head-to-toe in Rafael Nadal’s iconic sleeveless outfit.
That's what Andrey meant about copying Rafa's clothes. Hope he isn't offended on me taken it from his page vk #USOpen #Davai #Rublev #Nadal pic.twitter.com/40kS5mIZvI
— Maxim Yanchevsky (@mak_astr) September 5, 2017
Andrey Rublev is a Rafael Nadal fanboy. Here are his comments last month shortly after Nadal’s Roland Garros triumph:
“Even if you take other sportsmen or athletes, they can have bad days. But because maybe the team is good, they are still winning. In tennis, if you are having a really bad it is really tough to find a way [to win] and compete like nothing happened.
[Rafa] has done this during all his career. For me he is the best athlete, not even in tennis, the best athlete in history.
Every player, even Roger [Federer] or even Novak [Djokovic], they had one moment in their career when they were mentally a little bit down or they could get a little bit emotionally down during the match and, if something happens, they could lose or something,” Rublev said. “Rafa is the only one player in history that it doesn’t matter how he feels, bad or good. In the end he always finds a way to win.
If he is not winning, he is losing in three sets after three hours if it is not a Grand Slam. If it is a Grand Slam, it is going to be five hours and [against] the players that are really good… I don’t know how it is possible to be this strong mentally during all his career.”
Rafael Nadal and Andrey Rublev have only faced each other once, with Nadal brutally ending the Russian’s first ever big run with a 6-1 6-2 6-2 demolition in the 2017 US Open quarter-final.
Preamble
Hello! Welcome to the opening day of our coverage from the 2020 ATP Finals at the O2 Arena in London. After Dominic Thiem’s strong three-set win over Stefanos Tsitsipas earlier today, second seed Rafael Nadal is up next for his first match of the week against Andrey Rublev.
To those who are not yet familiar with Andrey Rublev, you will be soon. The 23 year-old has been the breakout player of 2020, piecing together an astonishing level of consistency with five titles, including three at ATP 500 level, and an elite 44-8 (85%) win-loss record. He has risen from 23rd to 8th in the rankings.
Although he has pieced together two excellent quarterfinal Grand Slam runs at the US Open and Roland Garros this year, much of Rublev’s success has come at ATP 250 and 500 events and the next step in his development will be consistently beat top players on the biggest stages. His debut appearance at the ATP Finals seems like the perfect opportunity to test his level against the best.
He will be facing a Rafael Nadal with some questions to answer. Despite how he elevated his game to win his 13th Roland Garros title with an astonishing championship performance against Novak Djokovic last month, Nadal has not played much this year and he still looked quite undercooked against Alexander Zverev in his Paris Masters semi-final loss a week ago. Nadal’s failure to win the ATP Finals remains the one big gap on his resume, but the one positive aspect for him is that he has arrived in London far healthier in the past. Let’s see what he can do tonight.
Updated
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