ATP Finals 2023: Wednesday's Top Storylines to Watch After Tuesday's Results | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
Emily Baldwin There are more questions than answers surrounding Carlos Alcaraz's current play.
The Spaniard has dropped three straight for the first time since March 2021, when he was still playing ATP Challenger matches.
Since his 2023 Wimbledon final victory over Novak Djokovic, Alcaraz has dealt with injuries and fatigue.
At times, his current version was enough to get past most players, such as his two wins in the Toronto Masters in August, but as summer has turned into fall, the former world No. 1 has looked more and more like a shell of himself, making uncharacteristic errors and struggling at the net.
Andrey Rublev will look to take advantage of his opponent's recent flaws and grab a 2-0 (1-0 in exhibition matches) lead in their head-to-head.
Rublev fell 6-4, 6-2, to Medvedev on Monday and simply had no answers for his friend.
While Rublev has posted 56 wins this season, a career-best, Alcaraz's current form is still enough to give him trouble.
Rublev has notoriously struggled against top-10 players, losing four of his last five matchups against such opponents.
At the moment, the only thing holding truly holding him back is his mentality.
Even at 75% in form, Alcaraz is still able to beat most opponents, and it took Alexander Zverev's absolute best to beat the Spaniard.
Alcaraz should be able to carefully navigate his way against Rublev and win his first career ATP Finals match in three sets.