The 8 top ranked players involved in the series are divided into two Groups of 4 players each - the Red Group and the Green Group'
Red Group
Alexander Sverev
Danill Medvedev
Matteo Berrettini
Hubert Hrrkacz
Green Group
Novak Djokovic
Andrey Rublev
Stefanos Tsitsipas
Casper Ruud.
The tournament commences on Sunday 14 November 2021
The match--ups on 14 November 2021 will be as follows:-
2 Danill Medvedev vs 7 Hubert Hurkacz
3 Alexander Sverev vs 6 Matteo Berrettini
The match-ups on 15 November 2021 will be as follows"-
1 Novak Djokovic vs 8 Casper Ruud
4 Stefanos Tsitsipas vs 5 Andrey Rublev
MATCH POINTS GAINED
Red Group
Played Won Match POINTS
Novak Djokovic 2 2 4/0 2
Andrey Rublev 2 1 2/2 1
Casper Ruud 2 1 2/3 1
Stefano Tsitsipas 1 0 0/2 0
Cameron Norrie 1 0 1/2 0
Blue Group
Played Won Match POINTS
Danill Medvedev 3 3 6/3 3
Alexander Sverev 3 2 4/2 2
Jannik Sinner 1 0 2/0 1
Hubert Hurkacz 2 0 1/4 0
Matteo Berrettini 1 0 0/1 0
The latest information is that Berrettini had to retire in tears from the game as a result of a stomach strain He has not yet announced his withdrawal from the series and when he does - as expected - he will be replaced by Jannik Sinner. If that happens there will be a question mark as to whether the game between Sinner and Sverev will be added to the schedule.
The Commentator said it is an open secret that Jannik Sinner has been called up to replace Matteo Berrettini in the Green Group.
There seems to be a problem with the site indication as to the games to be played tomorrow - but it seems to me that it will be -
Danill Medvedev vs Alexander Sverev.
Hubert Hurkacz vs Jannik Sinner
The match between Tsitsipas and Rublev produced an unbelievable level of top class tennis.. It was brutal with balls hit at speeds exceeding anything in tennis I have seen for years. It was a much higher tennis quality match than the other three matches. Unfortunately there had to be a winner - both players were exceptional - and this time around it was Rublev.
To get through to the semi Tsitsipas will have to beat both Djokovic and Ruud - while Rublev only have to beat either Ruud or Djokovic. Interesting encounters can be expected,
The following are the games on 17 November 2021:-
Novak Djokovic vs Andrey Rublev
Casper Ruud vs Cameron Norrie
Tsitsipas has wtidrawn from the ournament and has been replaced by Cameron Norrie.
It is already clear that Mdevedev is through to the play-offs in the Red Group. even if he loses against Sinner - in the third Round Robin game. He is likely the number 1 player in the Red Group provided he can beat Sinner who had a huge game against Hurkacz and that was a great performance by the 20 year old already, who after that game is second in the present situation. The second player going through will depend on the winners of the round robin games on Friday.
We will see tomorrow who will go through in the Green Group and who will have to wait till Friday to see who will actually go through to the semi's Please note that some of the results thus far have been a funny mix of some upsets and questionable performances and further upsets are indeed possible - so I am staying away from making any predictions in this case.
Semifinal pl;ay-offs
Basically the situation will be as follows:
Novak Djokovic vs Alexander Sverev
Danill Medvedev vs Casper Ruud
Effectively it means that the following are out of consideration in the play-offs irrespective of whether they win of lose in the remaining matches they still have to play:-
Hubert Hurkacx
Cameron Norrie
Jannik Sinner
Stefanos Tssitsipas - Injury withdrawal
Matteo Berrettini - Injury withdrawal
Each of the above 5 will earn $150 000 and get 200 points on the ranking system - not bad at all - but in the end Tsitsipas will get a negative point count of circa 550 points since he was in the final in 2020.
The games on 19 November 2021 will be as follows:-
Andrey Rublev vs Casper Ruud
Novak Djokovic vs Cameron Norrie .
After a disaster in set one against Medvedev Sinner showed real class in the next two sets and that shows he and Alcaraz. are the real stars of the future. They have done better at their ages than Federer, Djokovic and Nadal did at similar ages. I would think that in the EOY Champions tournament those two will be in the playing squad - it is the real tournament the players regard as the most important of them all and as Sverev said they start in January to qualify to play in this one and never stop trying.
The Final tomorrow is between -
2 Danill Medvedev vs Alexander Sverev
It been extremely rare for players to have follow-up wins in this series and Medvedev has a good chance to achieve that tomorrow.
Who will be the tennis Champion of 2021 in the Finals today. My feeling is it would be Medvedev he had a rather easier win in the semi than Sverev did. In beating Djpokovic in the semi was a great achievement by Sverev - but it was an extremely hard semi and Djokovic only surrendered when in the third set he became clearly tred out. Medvededev had a much easier semi and had beaten Sverev in the round robin stage of the tournament s well.