A dramatic two days on the hard courts of London’s O2 Arena saw the ATP Finals take a further twist after the opening day defeat for Roger Federer.

With Group Andre Agassi kicking off with the meeting between the current world number one Rafael Nadal and last year’s ATP Finals champion, Alexander Zverev, tennis once again presented fans with a perfect prism through which to view the sport, namely each competitor’s trajectories since last year’s event.

While Rafael Nadal has fought back from injury, regained his own majesty in the game and earned the respect of every other player on the men’s tour after battling to reclaim his number one status, Zverev has, in many ways, gone backwards. Failing to build on his ATP Finals win in Grand Slam events, the young prodigy many thought would break his major duck in 2019 has done nothing of the sort, instead enduring quarrels within his own camp and struggling to make the ATP Finals in any sort of form.

However, a run of recent results have steadied the ship for Zverev and he showed that he still has what it takes to win this event by demolishing Nadal 6-2, 6-4 in straight sets, keeping himself in the running for the $2.8 million on offer to the man who can win this event without losing a match. Nadal has never won the ATP Finals, and will need to respond quickly to remain in with a chance of doing so in his second match.