The 2019 Nitto ATP Finals is just one tier lower than the Grand Slam tennis tournaments on the men’s tour. This weekend we will see the semifinals and finals from O2 Arena in London, as the top-ranked men’s singles and doubles teams compete. This week, the group play has been taking place, with the semifinals and finals for the weekend. Alexander Zverev is the defending champion in men’s singles, while Mike Bryan and Jack Sock are the defending doubles champions. We have the standings from group play as well as tennis betting thoughts about the weekend’s play.
2019 Nitto ATP Finals Weekend Betting Preview
Group Andre Agassi
- Stefanos Tsitsipas (2-1) (winner)
- Alexander Zverev (2-1) (runner-up)
- Rafael Nadal
- Daniil Medvedev
Group Bjorn Borg
- Dominic Thiem (2-1) (winner)
- Roger Federer (2-1) (runner-up)
- Novak Djokovic (1-2)
- Matteo Berrettini (1-2)
Now the semifinals will feature the winner of Group Andre Agassi, Stefanos Tsitsipas, against the runner-up from Group Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer. The winner of Group Bjorn Borg, Dominic Thiem, will face the runner-up from Group Andre Agassi, Alexander Zverev.
The first thing that you might notice about this result is that Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, who generally outperform the semifinalists in Grand Slam events, did not move on to the semifinals. Tsitsipas and Zverev had never beaten Nadal before in any setting before this week’s victories.
Zverev has an excellent shot at defending his 2018 title here, with the top two players in the world nowhere in the bracket. His game against Daniil Medvedev showed a great deal of confidence, as he played an aggressive style despite knowing that he absolutely had to have the win if he wanted to move onto the semifinals. Zverev delivered a break in the first game against Medvedev, although Medvedev played with confidence as well, delivering second serves at greater than 130 miles per hour to take some points.
However, that aggressiveness did not pay off for Medvedev in the tie break on the second set, as he double-faulted at a crucial point. Zverev held serve the entire match and continued that through the rest of the tie break. On the day, Zverev made 81 percent of his first serves and won the point on 88 percent of those occasions. Given that Zverev was playing someone who had already been eliminated from advancement and therefore had nothing to lose, his win is impressive.
Roger Federer also impressed in his win over Novak Djokovic in group play, beating him for the first time since 2015, ending a six-match losing streak, rolling in straight sets with a 6-4, 6-3 victory. That loss kept Djokovic from having a shot at finishing the 2019 year atop the ATP rankings, guaranteeing that Nadal would finish first overall.
In his win over Djokovic, Federer had 23 winners against just five unforced errors. His game was aggressive as he took matters to Djokovic, and his serving was flawless on the match. He won 87 percent of his service points in the first set, with just one unforced error. At 1-1, with Djokovic serving, he double-faulted twice and then was dealt a huge backhand on break point, and Federer was off to the races. Djokovic did save two break points in the first game of the second set but then was broken at 2-2 of that set, and Federer converted another break after that.
If you’re picking a winner, Federer had a match for the ages against Djokovic. But at his age, can he do it again just two days later? He does have the advantage of additional rest when he faces Tsitsipas. However, Tsitsipas is playing some terrific tennis of his own. Then on the other side of the bracket sits the defending champion, Zverev, who has to get through a group winner of his own in Thiem. My two smart picks for this, though, are Zverev and Federer.
