The ATP Finals began its activity this Sunday with the dispute of four matches, two of singles and two of double. At O2 Arena from London, the eight best tennis players of 2020 and the eight best pairs of the season face each other: in both categories there are Argentine representatives with Diego Schwartzman Y Horacio Zeballos. But nevertheless, the two will have their premiere only on Monday.
The opening of the tournament was with the triumph of the Austrian Dominic Thiem by 7-6, 4-6 and 6-3 before the greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, who was crowned in this end-of-year Masters in the 2019 edition. Later, the Spanish Rafael Nadal was imposed by 6-3 and 6-4 before the russian Andrey Rublev. Both crosses occurred within the framework of the Group called London 2020.
While, in doubles, the duo made up of the Dutch Wesley Koolhof and the croatian Nikola Mektić superó a Germans Kevin Krawietz Y Andreas Mies by 6-7, 7-6 and 10-7. In the other match in pairs of the day, the pair of the North American Rajeev Ram and the british Joe Salisbury vle beat the Polish Lukasz Kubot and the brazilian Marcelo melo by 7-5, 3-6 and 10-5.
This contest has the Swiss as a great absentee Roger Federer, who decided in June to undergo surgery on his right knee with the intention of restarting the action only in 2020. This loss allowed the Small Schwartzman get his ticket to the ATP Finals after finishing 9th in the ranking.
In this way, at 28 years old, he will become the 8th Argentine to play the end-of-year Masters in singles mode after what Guillermo did. Vilas, Jose Luis Clerc, Juan Martin del Potro, David Nalbandian, Guillermo Coria, Gaston Gaudio and Mariano Door.
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In the doubles, Argentina will also have the representation of Onion Zeballos, who will try to make history by becoming the first South American in history to conquer this outstanding event accompanied by the Spanish Marcel Granollers. The 35-year-old born in Mar del Plata is currently the third best doubles player in the world, although they came to the tournament as the fourth best couple of 2020. Together, this year they added three titles in the category, highlighting what was done in the Masters 1000 de Roma.
A not minor detail is that Colombians are not classified Robert Farah and Juan Sebastián Cabal, number 1 and 2 in the world in this modality, but which are located as the 11th couple in the race towards the ATP Finals. Argentina will once again have a representative in the doubles table for the first time in 16 years, since the last flag albiceleste that flamed in this specialty was in the hands of Gastón Etlis and Martín Rodríguez in 2004.
THE DEBUT OF THE ARGENTINES
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Monday, November 16 at 9AM: Horacio Zeballos / Marcel Granollers vs. John Peers / Michael Venus
Monday, November 16 at 11AM: Diego Scwhartzman vs. Novak Djokovic
THE SINGLES GROUPS
• TOKYO 1970: Diego Schwartzman, Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev y Daniil Medvedev
• LONDON 2020: Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev
THE DOUBLE GROUPS
• BOB BRYAN: Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos / Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares / John Peers and Michael Venus and Jurgen Melzer / Edouard Roger-Vasselin
• MIKE BRYAN: Rajeev Ram y Joe Salisbury / Kevin Krawietz y Andreas Mies / Wesley Koolhof y Nikola Mektic / Lukasz Kubot y Marcelo Melo
Diego Schwartzman, hours after his premiere at the ATP Finals: from the “crossing of sensations”, to the “arm wrestling” with Djokovic
Schwartzman made history for national tennis: he will be the eighth Argentine to play the ATP Finals
