Key events
“Where’s Coach Calv with his breakdown?” I hear you ask, and rightly so. Well, right here: “Sixth time they’ve played each other this year. Medevedev usually wins but Zverev loves playing in altitude. Could be close I think. They’ll both do their usual thing. Medvedev will stand miles back and not miss any balls, Zverev will serve big and try and take the court. He’s a crap volleyer though so he’s limited there. And also, Medvedev hates him – earlier this year, Zverev said they’d been friends since juniors, then Medvedev said I don’t know why he keeps saying that, we’ve known each other since then but never been friends. I’d still make Medvedev slight favourite but it’s very tight just because of the altitude.”
Also for your delectation…
Preamble
Greetings all, recovered from last evening? No, me neither, but here we are, ready to go again with another enticing contest.
Both tonight’s players were superb in their first match. Daniil Medvedev wiped Andrey Rublev off the court, his patient, relentless power-game leaving his opponent close to tears.
Alexander Zverev, meanwhile, might be getting over a hump. Previously the man good enough to beat everyone – bar the best, when it really matters – since returning from long-term injury he’s steadily improved, and coming from behind to beat Carlos Alcaraz, as he did the other day, is a serious effort.
That being the case, this match is really hard to call, and with Alcaraz having beaten Andrey Rublev this afternoon, it may well be only one of these two progress . And if that’s the case, it’ll be whichever of them wins tonight.
Play: 9pm local, 8pm GMT
