Rafael Nadal has avoided facing Novak Djokovic in the round-robin stage at next week’s ATP Finals as the pair have been drawn in separate groups.
Second seed Tsitsipas leads the Red Group which contains Djokovic as well as 2020 champion Daniil Medvedev and world No 7 Andrey Rublev. Tsitsipas and Djokovic faced off in last week’s Paris Masters semi-final and the Greek star will be gunning for revenge as he narrowly missed out by losing in a final set tiebreak.
Djokovic and Medvedev have also had a recent semi-final meeting at last month’s Astana Open, which saw the Russian suddenly end the match in a shock retirement after losing the second set tiebreak, having won the first set. And both men will be relishing the chance to finish the match they never got to complete.
Rublev won last month’s title in Gijon while Medvedev picked up the Vienna Open title in his first tournament since that shock retirement to Djokovic, with the Serb being crowned the champion in Tel Aviv and Astana before his winning streak finally came to an end in the Paris Masters final at the hands of Holger Rune.
Tsitsipas is the only man in the Red Group not to have won a title in the last month but he reached the final in Stockholm, also losing to Rune.
Meanwhile the Green Group sees two first-time ATP Finals qualifiers in Auger-Aliassime and Fritz.The Canadian has been on a tear, winning three titles in the space of three weeks in Florence, Antwerp and Basel before his 16-match winning streak finally ended at the hands of Holger Rune in the Paris semi-finals.
Fritz got into the draw as the first alternate when world No 1 Carlos Alcaraz ended his season with an ab injury and was forced to pull out of the ATP Finals, granting the American a spot.The 25-year-old has enjoyed a career-best year, breaking the top 10 and winning three titles including his maiden Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells where he beat Nadal in the final.
Meanwhile, top seed Nadal is arguably the most out of practice after spending more than two months on the sidelines.
