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Patna : World No 2 Rafael Nadal, 34, Spain, edged past World No 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas, 22, Greece, in a Group B match in Nitto ATP Finals on November 19, 2020, late night, to advance to the semi-finals of the tournament for the sixth time. Nadal will face World No 4 Daniil Medvedev, 24, Russia, in semi-finals on November 21, 2020. Nadal, the winner of 20 Grand Slam singles titles, is yet to win ATP Finals title. Roger Federer, 39, Switzerland, has won this title six-times and Novak Djokovic, 33, Srbia, five-times.
ATP Finals is the second highest tier in men’s tennis tournament next only to the four Grand Slam tournaments. It is an annual event.
Nadal beat defending champion Tsitsipas 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in 2hr 5 minutes at O2 Arena, London, UK, to finish the Group Stage with 2-1 record. He had beaten World No 8 Andrey Rublev, 23, Russia, in his first match on November 16, 2020, but lost to World No 3 Dominic Thiem, 27, Austria, in second match on November 17, 2020. Tsitsipas had lost his first match to Thiem on November 15, 2020, but defeated Rublev in second match on November 18, 2020 and then lost to Nadal in third match.
Nadal won 4 break points to 2 by Tsitsipas. Both the players fired 8 Aces each in the match. But, Tsitsipas committed 4 double faults to 1 by the Spainiard. Nadal, in all, won 84 points to 67 by Tsitsipas. Nadal’s winning percentage both on his first and second serve ( 81% & 61%) was much better than that of Tsitsipas’ (70% & 50%). The Spainiard won 3 games in a row to 2 by the Greek. Nadal had also defeated Tsitsipas in three-sets in Group Stage match in 2019 Nitto ATP Finals. The Spainiard now leads Tsitsipas 6-1 Head to Head.