Rafael Nadal headed home from the ATP Finals on Friday after defending champion Alexander Zverev’s win against Daniil Medvedev confirmed the Spaniard’s exit from the season-ending tournament.
The world No 1 recovered to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 7-5 in the early round-robin match at London’s O2 Arena but knew he was dependent on the later result.
Zverev’s 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) win meant he qualified for the semi-finals from Group Andre Agassi alongside Tsitsipas.
Zverev’s win ruined a mouth-watering semi-final between Nadal and six-time champion Roger Federer, as the Spaniard would have topped the group had Zverev lost to Medvedev.
But instead it was Tsitsipas who topped the group and he will now play Federer in Saturday’s semi-finals while Zverev will meet Dominic Thiem, who finished ahead of Federer in Group Bjorn Borg.
German seventh seed Zverev broke the fourth-seeded Medvedev early, with the Russian knowing he was already heading out of the tournament after two defeats.
But Medvedev dug deep in the second set, fending off the single break point engineered by Zverev and took it to a tie-break.
The pair swapped mini-breaks but Medvedev double-faulted to give Zverev a 5-3 lead and the German held his nerve to seal his first match point with an ace.
“I’m in the semis again, this arena is where I play my best tennis,” said Zverev. “We don’t play in this atmosphere anywhere else in the world.
“Today because Daniil had nothing to lose he could just enjoy it, but for me it was must-win. He’s been the best player since the summer so all credit to him.”