On Tuesday, December 20, in the first round of the World Tennis League, Novak Djokovic will play against the recently recovered from injury Alexander Zverev. After his triumph at the ATP Finals, Djokovic is unlikely to stop, while Zverev is slowly rolling into the upcoming season after a long break to remember what he showed the year before.
Bookmaker Ratings: Prediction #1 – Handicap (-3.5) for Djokovic – 1.57.
When Zverev is in optimum form, he almost always manages to play on equal terms with Djokovic. Just think back to the 2021 season. Zverev beat Nole in epic fashion in the final of the Tokyo Olympics and in the decisive match at the ATP Finals. By the way, at the moment, the score in the confrontation is 8-5 in favour of Djokovic. That is, there is no clear superiority here.
However, Zverev is unlikely to be able to put up much of a fight against Novak, who tends to play at his best even after the break. There have been more than enough examples of that this year.
For Djokovic, the upcoming match will be his first after the break. Unlike most of the rest of the top 10, Nole turned down the opportunity to play at the Riyadh and Abu Dhabi exhibition tournaments.
Novak’s biggest success this autumn was winning the ATP World Tour Finals. In the final match, the former world #1 defeated Casper Ruud (7-5, 6-3).
Before that, he managed to defeat Taylor Fritz (7-6, 7-6), Daniil Medvedev (6-3, 6-7, 7-6), Andrey Rublev (6-4, 6-1) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (6-4, 7-6).
Djokovic also took titles in Tel Aviv and Astana in October. At the Paris Masters, the Serbian reached the final, in which he lost to Holger Rune.
Zverev, meanwhile, is still recovering from a complex ankle ligament injury. In fact, it took him six months to recover.
The German had planned to return to the tour in the autumn, but at some point, this was prevented by COVID-19. All in all, nothing but trouble.
Zverev played his first match after a long break in early December in Riyadh. The former world #2 defeated Dominic Thiem in a match played to ten points per set.
However, in the next game, which was played in the regular format, Zverev crumbled and lost to Daniil Medvedev. If there was any fight in the second set, Medvedev took the first set with a score of 6-0 in games.
Falcons: Novak Djokovic, Grigor Dimitrov, Aryna Sabalenka, Paula Badosa.
Hawks: Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Anett Kontaveit, Elena Rybakina.
Type of Court – Indoor Hard
Speed of Court – 8/10
Novak Djokovic’s Rating – 5
Novak Djokovic Wins/Losses in 2022 – 42/7
Alexander Zverev’s Rating – 12
Alexander Zverev Wins/Losses in 2022 – 29/10
The tennis players have met thirteen times in their careers. Eight times Novak was stronger. The last time they met was at the ATP World Tour Finals in 2021. In that match, Zverev defeated Djokovic (7-6, 4-6, 6-3) in three sets.
The match will be played in Center Court, Coca-Cola Arena, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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