Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
Switzerland’s Dominic Stricker moved to the top of the Red Group at the Next Gen ATP Finals on Wednesday with a victory over Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti that couldn’t have been any closer.
In the event’s unique format that features no-ad scoring and sets to four games, with tiebreakers at 3-3, Stricker prevailed 4-3 (5), 4-3 (6), 3-4 (7), 3-4 (6), 4-3 (3) at Milan, Italy.
The tournament includes the world’s top eight 21-and-under players, who were separated into two groups for round-robin play. The winner of each group will face the runner-up from the other group in the semifinals.
Stricker had a 20-9 edge in aces during the match that lasted 2 hours, 28 minutes. Stricker improved to 2-0, while Musetti fell to 1-1 in the Red Group round robin.
In the day’s other Green Group match, Great Britain’s Jack Draper beat Taiwan’s Chun-Hsin Tseng 1-4, 4-2, 4-3 (2), 4-2. Draper moved to 1-1, and Tseng slipped to 0-2.
The United States’ Brandon Nakashima is now 2-0 in the Green Group after a 4-1, 4-3 (2), 4-2 victory over the Czech Republic’s Jiri Lehecka. The result dropped Lehecka to 1-1, the same as Francesco Passaro, who won an all-Italian matchup against Matteo Arnaldi, 4-3 (7), 2-4, 3-4 (4), 4-3 (4), 4-3 (8).
Arnaldi, who slipped to 0-2, was unable to take advantage of three match points in the fifth-set tiebreaker before Passaro converted his third match point.
Next Gen ATP Finals group standings, with record, set winning percentage, game winning percentage:
Green Group
1. Brandon Nakashima, 2-0, 75 percent, 56.9 percent
2. Jiri Lehecka, 1-1, 50 percent, 51.4 percent
3. Francesco Passaro, 1-1, 37.5 percent, 43.1 percent
4. Matteo Arnaldi, 0-2, 40 percent, 49.3 percent
Red Group
1. Dominic Stricker, 2-0, 75 percent, 53.6 percent
2. Lorenzo Musetti, 1-1, 62.5 percent, 54.7 percent
3. Jack Draper, 1-1, 42.9 percent, 48.9 percent
4. Chun-Hsin Tseng, 0-2, 14.3 percent, 40.5 percent
–Field Level Media