There is one thing you can be sure of with Dominic Thiem this week – nobody in the eight-man field has worked harder than him to make it to the Nitto ATP Finals. While rising up the Emirates ATP Rankings, the 24-year-old Austrian has gained a reputation for being one of the Stakhanovites of the ATP World Tour – the suggestion being he’s as dedicated and productive as the worker once mythologised by the former Soviet Union for his industry. If there is a significant tournament on, you will usually find Thiem as one of its participants. He loves to play, and is certainly not a disciple of the trend among some of the elite who lean towards a ‘less...
If, as someone once said, Andy Murray resembles “a tennis pro drawn by Dr Seuss”, then David Goffin, as a Belgian with blonde hair, pink cheeks and a lean frame, is always going to attract comparisons with Hergé’s creation: Tintin. So don’t be at all surprised if the 26-year-old’s matches by The Thames are presented in some quarters as The Adventures of David Goffin. And Goffin himself has hardly distanced himself from this in the past, telling one interviewer that if he could be any comic book character, he would be Tintin. Weighing a Tintin-esque 68 kilograms, which is under 11 stone, Goffin is comfortably the lightest qualifier for this year’s Nitto ATP Finals – for comparison, Rafael Nadal and...
The purists say keep in-match coaching out of the game at all costs. The new-age tennis fans say the more, the better. Fans will see a middle ground of sorts at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held 7-11 November at the Fiera Milano (Rho), Italy, where in-match coaching will make its ATP World Tour debut. Players will get to talk with their coach at the end of each set, which could mean up to four times a match as the 21-and-under tournament will be best-of-five set contests. But there will be no official coaching during any other moment in the match, save for one exception: If one player takes a medical timeout or bathroom break, the opposing...
Daniil Medvedev pays a visit to his favourite football club, Inter Milan, at San Siro. Watch the Next Gen ATP Finals LIVE on Amazon Prime Video: www.primevideo.com/ATP.
Daniil Medvedev pays a visit to his favourite football club, A.C. Milan, at San Siro. Watch the Next Gen ATP Finals LIVE on Amazon Prime Video: www.primevideo.com/ATP.