(Tennis news) Rublev was defeated in straight sets by his fellow Russian Daniil Medvedev on Monday, while Alcaraz fell to Alexander Zverev in three sets.

The Spaniard had not participated in the ATP Finals since last year because of an abdominal injury, thus Alcaraz’s matchup with Zverev was in fact his first ever at the competition. Alcaraz had never before qualified for the event, which is not uncommon for a young man in his early years.

Alcaraz’s debut at the season-ending championship did not go as planned, as two-time ATP Finals champion Zverev played steadier tennis to win 6-3 6-4 in the following two sets. This was despite Alcaraz coming back from a break down to beat the German 7-3 in an opening-set tie-break.

Alcaraz is struggling as a result of the loss as he looks to advance out of the Red Group, but judging by his most recent Instagram posts, the 20-year-old is not giving up just yet. “This tournament is different many ways, and one of them is that it allows you to reach the semis despite losing the first match,” Alcaraz posted.

But after losing to Dimitrov and Roman Safiullin in his first two Masters events, Alcaraz has now lost three straight. With a match against Rublev on Wednesday that must be won, he will have to use every ounce of his elite mentality and world-class skills.

After making his first appearance in the top 10 of the ATP Tour rankings in October 2020, Rublev, on the other side, is making his fourth consecutive appearance at the ATP Finals.

Although he was defeated by Casper Ruud in the competition’s semifinals the previous year, the 26-year-old is a master of consistency, having finally completed the set in terms of reaching quarterfinals at all four Grand Slams by making it to the last eight at Wimbledon recently.

Rublev is the male player of the Open Era with the most appearances in Grand Slam quarterfinals, but his record of 0-9 there prevents him from ever making it to the semifinals. Nevertheless, he did win his first ATP Masters 1000 title earlier this year when he defeated Holger Rune at the Monte-Carlo Masters.

In just ninety-one minutes, the 2021 US Open champion exacted revenge on his fellow Russian, Medvedev, whom he had defeated in the round-robin round the previous year. After dropping serve in the seventh game of the first set due to a number of uncharacteristic unforced errors, Rublev was unable to capitalise on seven breakpoints in Medvedev’s next two service games.
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