Medvedev D. vs Rublev A.

On Monday night, Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, two close friends, will play their first round robin match on the hard court in the ATP World Tour Finals Red group.

While Rublev has now made four straight appearances at the ATP Finals, the former is competing in the year-end championships for the fifth time in a row.

As has been the case in their eight prior high-level encounters, Medvedev will put his friendship with Rublev on hold as he looks to build on his victory in 2020—the year before he fulfilled his dream of winning a Grand Slam at the US Open.

The tall Moscow native went on to the ATP Finals' championship match that season, but lost heartbreakingly to Alexander Zverev. Round-robin eliminations in 2019 and 2022 are best left in the annals of history.

Due to his incredible start to the season, which saw him win three ATP Tour titles in February alone—in Rotterdam, Dubai, and Qatar—as well as two Masters trophies from Miami and Rome, Medvedev had his sights set on a spot in Turin at the beginning of 2023.

But the third seed, who lost to Jannik Sinner in the October showpiece events in Vienna and China, has lost his last three top-level finals and goes into the group stage with that record.

Despite losing to Grigor Dimitrov in the final 32 of the most recent Paris Masters and being defeated by Carlos Alcaraz in the Indian Wells Masters final eight months prior, 27-year-old Medvedev is far from a dark horse to win the Turin title with 64 wins and 16 losses on his record this year.

World No. 5 Andrey Rublev suffered through another season of heartbreak in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open, and Roland Garros, only making it as far as the third round each time.

After nine unsuccessful attempts to advance to a major semifinal, the 26-year-old finally ended his long wait for an ATP 1000 title at the Monte-Carlo Masters this year, defeating Holger Rune in the final after coming back from a set down. He also made waves at the recent Shanghai and Paris Masters.

The Russian lost in the round robin in his first two year-end championship appearances in 2020 and 2021, but in the previous year's event, he advanced to the knockout stages before losing to Casper Ruud's superiority in the semi-finals.

Rublev has played 79 games on the tour this year, with a commendable 56 victories and 23 losses. However, even though he and Medvedev had some lighthearted banter at a recent press conference, the countrymen will exchange grins for toughness as they try to start winning on Monday.

After facing off frequently at the junior level, Medvedev and Rublev have faced off eight times at the highest level. The former has won six times, while the world number five has only twice.

Before Rublev won his first match in two seasons ago at the Cincinnati Masters, Medvedev had won each of their first four ATP Tour matches, which had all occurred in different quarterfinals. These matches included the 2020 US Open and the 2021 Australian Open.

That victory came before an exciting victory in the group stage of the ATP Finals last year, but Medvedev has won both of their matches this year in straight sets, defeating his friend in the Dubai final before