Key events
The music is pumping out. The dancers, as they have been all week, are warming the crowd up. And now a tennis ball is bouncing on the big screens to the sound of a very loud heartbeat. It’s all a far cry from Wimbledon, where Alcaraz won the second of the two slam titles he pocketed this year.
Alcaraz says of facing Zverev:
My chances of qualifying are still there, so we’re going to go all out. But [Zverev] is one of the toughest players in the world for sure.
I think I return pretty well but he has a really big serve and plays unbelievable from the baseline, which makes him a really tough opponent to face.
I don’t like to face him because of his serves and shots, but I am trying to find the beauty of playing him.
Zverev says of his ATP Finals record:
It means I’m old! But I still don’t feel old. I hope I have another solid 10 years ahead of me, but I think it’s a young group of guys. There has been kind of a shift in tennis this year and I think it’s a good thing. They’re exciting new players and everybody loves watching them.
I’m expecting a tough match [against Alcaraz], we’ve played some very tough battles in grand slams this year. I’m looking forward to it and hopefully it will be fun to watch.
Some stats. Their head-to head is tied at 5-5, with Alcaraz winning the match that mattered the most, this year’s French Open final. But Zverev did beat the Spaniard in the Australian Open quarter-finals in January and at the ATP Finals last year.
The 27-year-old Zverev, the 2018 and 2021 champion, is making his seventh appearance at the ATP Finals, the most of any competitor this year, while the 21-year-old Alcaraz is looking for his first season-ending title at only the second attempt.
The current situation behind the scenes: Alcaraz, pink nose strip again firmly in place, headphones on, is flexing his muscles while tugging at a resistance band.
The current standings in the John Newcombe group: Zverev is top, followed by Ruud, Alcaraz and then Rublev. All four are still in the mix.
And look who’s coming back:
Tim Joyce’s piece on the wise-beyond-her-years Coco Gauff is well worth a read too:
Meanwhile at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, Britain get their campaign under way later against Germany, with Emma Raducanu set to make her return from injury after nearly two months out. Our tennis correspondent Tumaini Carayol is in Malaga:
In the doubles, Britain’s Henry Patten and his Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara finished top of the Mike Bryan group yesterday with three wins from three, but Germany’s Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz have been unable to complete a perfect campaign in the Bob Bryan group, because they’ve just lost to Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden 7-5, 6-7 (6) 10-7. It makes no difference to the qualification though, with Krawietz and Puetz already through and Bopanna and Ebden, in their final tournament together after a two-year partnership, already eliminated.
Preamble
Ciao! Salve! Buongiorno! And welcome to our coverage of Carlos Alcaraz v Alex Zverev on the final day of the group stage, with Casper Ruud against Andrey Rublev to come di note.
After Jannik Sinner and Taylor Fritz booked their semi-final places yesterday, the qualification permutations today are more complex and confusing than revisiting an episode of Twin Peaks. Even Zverev, with two wins from two, is not guaranteed to advance, but he does at least know that winning one set would confirm his last-four spot – though he could still progress with a straight-sets defeat.
The two-time ATP Finals champion has been in superb touch so far. Arriving in Turin off the back of his victory at the Paris Masters and having reclaimed the world No 2 spot, he’s yet to drop a set this week, so comes into this match fresh and focused. But will the German be carrying any scar tissue from this year’s French Open final defeat by Alcaraz, when he led by two sets to one before the Spaniard ran away with it in the fourth and fifth?
Alcaraz, meanwhile, will be hoping there aren’t too many lingering effects of the illness he was struggling with in his first two matches. After being routed by Ruud in straight sets, he armed himself with antibiotics, a pot of chest rub and a nasal strip to defeat Rublev, but the Wimbledon champion knows he’ll need greater artillery to defeat an in-form Zverev this afternoon.
The match begins at about: 2pm local time/1pm GMT.
In the meantime: this should get you in the mood.
