NITTO Championship Tennis Tournament

Some news on the Championship in Turin from 13 to 20 November 2022.   

The following 8 players have qualified for the Tournament:-

1    Carlos Alcaraz    - he was the top qualifier but a serious injury in Paris caused his withdrawal

2    Rafael Nadal

3    Stefanos Tsitisipas

4    Casper Ruud

5    Danill Medvedev

6    Felix Auger-Aliassime

7    Andrey Rublev

8    Novak Djokovic

9    Taylor Fritz         - replacing Carlos Alcaraz

There are normally 2 players on standby should any player be injured during the tournament.   The 2 payers on standby are likely to be the following:-

10    Holger Rune

11    Hubert Hurkacz

The 8 players are divided in two groups of 4 players each.   The draw will take place on Sunday.    Each player must play 3 players in the Round Robin stage and the top two players n each group goes through to the sei-finals.

The price money is massive   - as is evident from the following schdedule:-

• Alternate: $93,000
• Participation Fee: $173,000
• Round-robin match win: $173,000
• Semi-final match win: $530,000
• Final win: $1,094,000
• Undefeated champion: $2,316,000

The 2 standby players will be paid $93 000 - even if thye do not play a single match.   Each of the 8 qualifiers will be paid $173 000 dollars whether they lose all 3 Round robin matches.     The second and third matches in the Round Robin stage players will get  $173 000 per win.   Semi final win $530 000.   Runner Up earns $1 084 000 and the winner $2 316 000.  On average playerds will earn more money  than they would mearn in a Major Tournament.   

The ranking points are also liberal -  as I understand it players get  200 points for each Round Robin win   The semifinal winners gets another 400 points and the losing finalist will end up with 1 100  points and the winner with 1 500 points.   The tournament could have a major impact on the rankings for the Australian Open next year,     

The Draw took place and are as follows:

Red Group      

Novak   Djokovic

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Danill Medvedev

Andrey Rublev

Green Group

Rafael Nadal

Casper Ruud

Felix Auger-Aliassime

Taylor Fritz

The following are the matches to be played:-

Round  1    -    4 Matches 

13 November 2022    -     Green Group

Rafael Nadal               vs           Taylor Fritz

Casper Ruud              vs           Felix Auger Aliassime

14 November 2022     -     Red Group  

Danill Medvedev                 vs           Andrey Rublev

Stefanos Tsitsipas                vs           Novak Djokovic           

Round 2     -    4 Matches 

15 November 2022     -      Green Group

Rafael Nadal                     vs              Felix Auger-Aliassime

Casper Ruud                      vs            Taylor Fritz

16  November 2022    -      Red Group

Andrey Rublev               vs           Novak Djokovic

Stefanos Tsitsipas            vs           Danill Medvedev 

Round 3    -     4 Matches 

17  November 2022     -      Green Group

Rafael Nadal                    vs         Casper Ruud

Felix Auger- Aliassime    vs         Taylor Frits   

18  November 2022    -      Red Group

Stefanos Tsitrsipas            vs        Andrey Rublev

Danill Medvedev             vs        Novak Djokovic       

The semifinals are on 19 November and the Final on 20 November 2022 

LOG

GREEN GROUP                      Matches      Games     Sets       Points

1      Casper Ruud                             3            40/38        4/3          2 

2     Taylor Fritz                               3             39./45       6/3          2

3      Felix  Auger-Aliassime            3            42/40       3/6          1

4      Rafael Nadal                            3            28/35        2/4          1

RED GROUP

1     Novak Djokovic                        3            44/31        6/1         3   

2    Andrey Rublev                           3            40/29       5/3          2

3    Stefanos Tsitsipas                       3            26/29       3/5         1 

4     Danill Medvedev                       3           32/35       1/4          0

If the points are equal - the sets won and lost comes into the picture and if that is equal the number of games won and lost are taken into account to determine advancing to the semi-finals.        

Comments on Round 1 matches in Green Group

From the match result it was clear that Nadal is not match-fit.   He was competitive in the first set  losing the Set 7/6 only getting 3 points.   He made 2 double-faults serving in the tiebreaker, guaranteeing that Fritz win the set.   His serving in the second set collapsed totally with 3 duble faults also in evidence resulting in him losing the set 1/6.   As I understand the point system he is now not in contention to become the number 1 player in the world even if he did win the tournament.    The chances are good that he may retire from the Tournament with Rune potentially replacing him.

Auger-Aliassime  repeated a past tendency in losing in this series after top performances in recent previous tournaments.

The next match-ups in this group are between Fritz playing Ruud and Nadal playing Auger-Aliassime.   Further losses in the second round would likely be the end of potential participation in the semifinals by Nadal or Auger-Aliassime or even both of them.   

 Comments on Round 1 matches in Red Group   

Rublev did very well in beating Medvedev.    Medvedev won 5 of their previous encounters - the first match win of Rublev was in Cincinatti in August 2022.   He played an excellent game - one of the best ever I seen him play.

The match between Djokovic is set for later tonight and i will update as soon as the final outcome in that match is available.

The next matches in the Red Group is on Wednesday when Rublev is playing Tsitsipas and Medvedev is playing Djokovic,    If Medvedev loses that one he is virtually out of contention to play in the semi-finals.   Tsitsipas started off poorly and lost his opening serve and never recovered.       

Every match played in this tournament is critical when it comes to survival in the series.   None more so than the match between  Nadal and Auger-Aliassime today.  A loss by either of them will mean the winner will still be in contention with 1 point in the two matches played and the loser no points at all.   The loser will only be able to get 1 point in 3 matches played - which will probably be inadequate for qualification to play in the semies.   Based on Nadal's own comments after the first round game the bookies has Auger-Aliassime as the favorite to win today.

A similar situation applies to Medvedev and Tsitsipas in the Red Group in the second round match on Thursday.   A loss by either of the two players wil eliminate the other one from playing in the semies,   In the case of these two players the bookmakers have Medvedev as the favorite to win.  despite his loss to Rublev.   

Rublev is very unpredictable - he has had an excellent match against Medvedev, but he often follows an excellent performance by a very poor one.   What was interesting is that Rublev won his first match against Medvedev in Cincinatti in August 2022 and repeated the win in Round 1.   The same thing happened in the case of Djokovic in the last game Rublev won against him in Belgarde.   If  Rublev played as well as he did against Medvedev he has a reasonable chance of beating Djokovic for a second time.   I took a chance on Rublev beating Medvedev and my bet allows me to win R630 in that match.   I used R200 of that winnings to bet on Rublev beating  Djokovic tomorrow.   

Comments on Round 2 matches in Green Group

Losing two matches in a row and with only 1 match remaining Nadal has 0 points on the log.   Let me explain further.    Ruud  won against Fritz that puts the former on 2 points.    The situation is that the second semi position will be the won by either Fritz or Auger-Aliassime putting the winner on 2 points.    Even if Nadal beats Ruud on Thursday he will only be on 1 point.   As a result the no 1 and no 2 positions on the log will be determined by the results on Thursday, while Nadal will be out of the semifinals.    

There was some speculation in the newspapers that6 Nadal or Tsitsipas may end up  being in the number 1 ranking position if they did win in this tournament.   However, from the log position it is not possible for Nadal to overtake Alcaraz in the number 1 ranking position at the end of the 2022 playing season - while in the case of Tsitsipas he can get a maximum  of 6 850 if he win in this tournament as against the present 6 820 of Alcaraz.   The latter will be determined by what happens in the Red Group on Friday .                

Comments on Round 2 matches in Red Group     

In the case of the Red Group the bookmakers rate Djokovic and Medvedev to win today - but that did not work out very well for Medvedev in Round 1.    So what will the posiiton be in the matches today?    If Tsitsipas loses against Medvedev he will be in the same position as Nadal is at present iro of the no 1 ranking in the world - in other words he will not be able to advance to the semi-final stage in this tournament.    The  loss of Medvedev will mean that he is out of the tournament.  

Rublev followed up a good win over Medvedev by a total collapse in the match against Djokovic - that happen often in the case of Rublev.    Anyway despite the loss Rublev is still in the tournament. and the qualifier to play in the semifinals will determined in the match between Tsitsipas and Rublev on Friday.   

It looks very much like Djokovic may win the tournament  - that will be a cvery good thing  for him.                              

The sedmifinals have already determined as to the no 1 positions so here are the gmatches in the quarterfinals:-

Casper Ruud                     vs        Andrey Rublev

 Novak Djokovic             vs         Taylor Fritz

Despite the loss against Nadal in Round 3 Ruud will remain the number 1 player in the Green Group.   

Comments on Round 3 matches in the Green Group

So what happened in the Ruud - Nadal match?    Ruud is known to lose early in minor tournaments and I am surprised about him not losing a match in the earlier rounds.   However, Nadal looked like a real champion playing Ruud - but the latter never beat him in any past tournaments.    Nadal was out of the tournament after losses in Rounds 1 and 2 - yet he put on a wonderful performance,  

Comments on Round 3 matches in the Red Group

Medvedev went down badly this year and he is not 10% of the player he used to be.   He lost badly in Rounds 1 and 2 and is not competitive anymore.   He is likely to end this year in the number 9 or 10 ranking. 

Djokovic struggled badly in the match - but in the end won because Medvedev was even more unfit than Djokovic was.    The latter struggled in the second and third set and Medvedevv was up at one stage and serving to win the set. 

Rublev struggled in the first set and everybody would have believed that Tsitipas was homme and dry,   However, Rublev was brilliant in the second and third sets and on through to the Semifinals.       As a result of the Rublev-Tsitsipas match outcome Alcaras will retain the number 1 ranking in the world.                  

SEMIFINALS

Casper Ruud                     vs         Andrey Rublev

 Novak Djokovic              vs         Taylor Fritz

Hahaha…you bet money on Roob-left to beat the Joker.

It was just part of the profit I made on Rublev in  Round 1.   I did not really believe that Rublev can repeat the match against Medvedev - he is normally playing a good game and lose the next match.   However, Rublev is still in the running for a semifinal spot even though T sitsipas is the favorite to beat him this evening.      

 As to Djokovic I am watching the match between Djokovic and Medvedev and Djokovic looks like he is running out of steam in the match, especially at the end of Set 2.   I give Djokovic no chance to beat Fritz tomorrow - so lets wait and see what the end result of the Djokovic and Medvedev match.  

Having seen how badly Djokovic struggled to get ahead and in the end it was a nail-biter he would have an uphill battle against Fritrz in the semifinal.   The same can be said of Ruud in his third round match and that gives Rublev a chance to advance further as well.

One could potentially see a Fritz-Rublev final      

I see that  Djokovic took a powdery substance at the end of Set 2 and was drinking from bottles specially prepared by his coaching staff during the match.   That sounds very fishy to me - was he taking a performance enhancing substance?    He is likely to be tested and if there was anything prohibited found it would be a career catastrophe for him.

I also see that Djokovic is the bookie favorite to win the match against Fritz - however the opening odds on Fritz were slashed from 4,10 to 3,70 since the batting opened and is very likely to go down further.   In the second semi-final Rublev is the favorite with him being 1,59 and Ruud  2,22 after the batting opened with Rublev at 1,67 and  Ruud at 2,10.   So why is Rublev the favorite in the match against Ruud?    The answer is simple - in their playing careers Rublev played 6 matches against each other and of those 6 matches Rublev won 5.   The sole loss against Ruud was in the Turin Championship in 2021.   Rublev in 2021 was badly out of form, but the three trophies this year 9against none by Ruud gives Rublev the advantage over Ruud.     

There will be a vast change in the ranking system - especially if there is a potential final between Rublev and Fritz materializing.    Medvedev is going to drop massively in the rankings and even Djokovic will go down further since he will not gain any ranking points as he lost in the 2021 in the semifinal as well.  

FINAL

Novak Djokovic              vs           Casper Ruud

Rublev became his own worst enemy again tonight and that killed his game.

Djokovic in the end is really the best player this year - the forst time since 2014 he womn the trophy. congrats to him.

I am always frank and objective on site.  What did you do with the De Allende ratings prove you are a total arsehole.