Ruthless Nadal off to a flyer at ATP Finals

London is bidding farewell to the ATP Finals after hosting it since 2009 but Rafa Nadal has unfinished business alongside the River Thames and his opening win over Andrey Rublev on Sunday suggests he is ready to land the one big title to elude him.

The 34-year-old Mallorcan has struggled at the ATP’s year-ender with two runner-up finishes in London his best showings.

Often he has arrived physically spent after gruelling years, but he looked full of beans in a 6-3 6-4 victory that put him top of the London Group, ahead of Austrian Dominic Thiem who got his campaign off to a fine start with a 7-6(5) 4-6 6-3 victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas who he lost to in the 2019 final.

Nadal will face Thiem on Tuesday.

After winning the French Open last month for a 13th time, Nadal sounded unsure whether he would appear in London.

The fact he is here, with London in COVID-19 lockdown and the O2 Arena without any fans, shows that he regards it as a great opportunity to finally win the title.

Often a slow starter indoors, Nadal was straight into the groove against Rublev, whose five titles this year is more than any other player on the ATP Tour.

Rublev was a little unlucky to drop serve at 2-3 in the first set, his forehand flicking the net and landing out.

But after that it was a foregone conclusion with Nadal rock-solid on serve and clinical from the baseline.

“I think it’s a positive start,” Nadal said. “Always here the first match is tricky. You are playing the best of the best. Now I have a super tough match against Dominic.”