Zverev beats Ruud and leaves everything open for Friday, with his duel with Alcaraz

If he was very confident in the debut against Andrey Rublev, he accelerated a little more against Casper Ruudwho turns from a gray second part of the year in these ATP Finals in which he took advantage of Carlos Alcaraz’s cold to beat him on the first day and showed his most splendid and fighting version in the first set against Zverev.

The difference was in mentality, where the German has already shown that he has taken a step forward and where the Norwegian still falls short. After a first set without either of them giving an inch, giving the fans very high level exchanges, in the mental game of the ‘tie break’ they became obviously unbalanced against Zverev.

Two forehands, a good serve, two errors from Ruud and the German was at 5-1 that the Norwegian was unable to overcome. And from that shout from Hamburg when he won the first set, the match became completely unbalanced towards his side. A whirlwind of forehands and good first serves led to victory against a Ruud who had no more energy left than that displayed until that outcome in the first chapter.

Thus, Zverev has two victories in this Masters Cup that place him one and a half feet in the semifinal, the fourth in seven editions held, but with everything to be decided: whether first or second in the group and who will accompany him.

After being almost out of the tournament due to the defeat against Ruud and the cold, Alcaraz has several combinations that would make him be in the semifinals. The one he wants is direct: to beat Zverev on Friday, at 2:00 p.m. But there is also an option to go through even with a loss, but I would keep it pending on the Ruud and Rublev match, scheduled for 8:30 p.m.