We’re continuing our ATP Finals predictions with Friday’s final group-stage matches at the O2 Arena in London and are looking to follow yesterday’s winning 17/2 double with an 8/1 shot today.
This is the final year the event will be staged here and eight of the world’s top nine players are present, with Roger Federer ruled out by injury.
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Novak Djokovic to beat Alexander Zverev 2-0 @ 91/100
This is a winner-takes-all clash in the Tokyo 1970 group, with one place in the semi-finals still up for grabs.
Djokovic eased to victory against Diego Schwartzman in his opening match but was then out of sorts and lost seven games in a row at one point on his way to a 6-3 6-3 defeat against Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday.
Having not lost a match in 2020 apart from his disqualification at the US Open until October, Djokovic has now been beaten in three of his last six outings.
That will give hope to Zverev, who needed three sets to beat Schwartzman after also losing in straight sets to Medvedev, but he will need to raise his game.
He has not cut a happy figure on court this week but he rejected the idea that allegations of physical abuse by an ex-girlfriend, which he strongly denies, are making it hard to focus on tennis.
Asked how he was dealing with the negative attention, he said: “The same way I’ve been dealing with it the last few weeks. Nothing’s changing, I think I’ve said enough about that. I’m here to play tennis. I did my job today and I’ve got to do it again on Friday.”
This could be a bad time to be facing Djokovic, with no chance of any complacency from the Serbian.
None of the five previous meetings between these two have gone to a deciding set so we’ll take Djokovic to win in two as the first of our ATP Finals predictions today.
Daniil Medvedev to win first set 6-3 vs Diego Schwartman @ 15/4
The second singles match of the day is a dead rubber, with Medvedev having already clinched top spot in the group and Schwartzman facing certain elimination.
There are still ranking points plus prize money up for grabs, though, so both players have plenty of incentive to go for victory and Medvedev will want to make it three wins out of three with the minimum of fuss ahead of Saturday’s semi-finals.
That should not be an issue against clay specialist Schwartzman who, as expected, has struggled on the indoor hard courts on his debut at the tournament.
The Argentine has lost all four previous meetings with Medvedev, winning just one set, and was beaten 6-3 6-1 when the pair met at the Paris Masters recently.
With the odds on the Russian winning 2-0 having little appeal, we’ll instead go for Medvedev to again win the first set 6-3.
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