The men’s professional circuit tennis the curtain will fall on 2022 with the traditional ATP Finalsa contest that brings together the eight best players of the season and which will be held for the second consecutive year in the impressive Shovel Alpitour from Turin. The tournament will start this Sunday, with Rafael Nadal Y Stephen Tsitsipas as the top favorites and a singles draw in which two living legends of the sport: the Majorcan and Novak Djokovic– will compete once again with various talents of this new generation that seems ever closer to definitively stealing the limelight from him.
The “Masters Tournament” who was undoubtedly “player of the year” will be missed: Carlos Alcaraz. The 19-year-old Spaniard, who after winning the US Open become the youngest world number one in historyhe withdrew from the appointment after suffering a lacerated internal oblique muscle of the left lateral abdominal wall.
German will also be absent Alexander Zverev, winner of the title in 2021, who after suffering a torn lateral ligament in his right ankle at Roland Garros, did not play again and was far from qualifying. For the second consecutive edition, there will be no Argentines in the individual competition.
The Alcaraz name will still be present in Turin, due to the competition will define which player will finish the year at the top of the standings. The Murciano, located in that position today, could lose the number 1 if Nadal or Tsitsipas close a great performance. It would be enough for the Majorcan to reach the final, without losing any games in the league round robinwhile the Greek has to lift the trophy.
For Raf, the top of the ranking is not “the goal”. In one on one with clarionhe stated: “I haven’t fought for this for years. I’m looking at other goals within my sports career. If the results later say that I reach that position, I’m welcome.”
What the winner of 22 Grand Slams (14 of which in Paris) will be looking for is to win one of the most important titles on the calendar for the first time at the age of 36. Is that although he has already played this tournament ten times and played two finals (in 2010, he lost against Roger Federerand in 2013, with Djokovic), could never shout champion.
The Spaniard, second in the standings and this year’s winner in Melbourne, the Australian OpenAcapulco and Roland Garrosis the best candidate for Green Groupon paper the most accessible of round robin.
His rivals, who also don’t know what it means to win this race, will be the Norwegians Casper Ruud (4th, 23 years old and champion this year in Buenos Aires, Geneva and Gstaad), the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (6th and 22nd) and the American Taylor Fritz (9th and 25th), entered at the last minute after the crash of Alcaraz.
Nadal has a positive record against all three. Who could complicate it more would be Auger-Aliassime, in the running with three championships in Florence, Antwerp and Basel, and a semifinal (in Paris he lost against Rune Holgerlater champion) in the last four weeks (he had previously conquered Rotterdam).
Fritz was the only one of that trio who could beat Nadal in 2022, in the final of Indian wells, when the Spaniard was wounded. The American then won Eastbourne and Tokyo.
Much more difficult will be the path of Djokovic in the group stage. The Serbian, 35 years old and placed eighth in the standings, will face in red group a tsitsipas (3rd and 24th) and to the Russians Daniel Medvedev (5th and 26th) e Andrei Rublev (7 and 25).
Against the first two they lead the head-to-head record and have not lost a single game this season. With Rublev it is 1-1 head-to-head, with a defeat in the only game played this year, in the final in Belgrade in April.
Tsitsipas, who will have a chance at number one as a special incentive, was crowned this season in Monte Carlo and Mallorca, and is looking for his second title in “Teacher”after which he won in 2019.
Medvedev, champion of this tournament in 2020, conquered Los Cabos and Vienna and was the one who in February eliminated the Serbian from number one, who had been in that position for two years. Meanwhile, Rublev has been crowned in Marseille, Dubai, Belgrade and Gijón.
Djokovic had a difficult 2022, amid being unable to play several tournaments (including Australia and the US Open) due to his refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and a return of points that have worsened because Wimbledonwhere he defended his title, he gave out no units.
That combination of “complications” it cost him the number 1 and a drop in ranking. But Freight He made the most of the opportunities he had: he played only ten tournaments, won four (Rome, the English Grand Slam, Tel Aviv and Astana) and was a finalist in two others: Belgrade and the Masters 1000 in Paris.
The Serbian will go hunting for his sixth title at the ATP Finals, won already in 2008 and then consecutively between 2012 and 2015. If he cries champion again, he will break the tie with ivan lendl Y pete sampras (also five-time champions) and will equal the all-time record of Federersix times winner.
The tournament will have the largest prize pool in the history of the sport – it will give out almost 15 million euros, between singles and doubles draw. If the champion is undefeated, he will fetch $4,740,300, an amount that for the first time will exceed that delivered by any of the Grand Slams. Alcaraz, for example, earned $2.6 million for his US Open crowning.
The round robin It will be played between Sunday and Friday. The semi-finals on Saturday 19 and the final on Sunday 20, in special time. Is that it will start two hours later than scheduled (it went from 17:00 to 19:00, 14:00 in Argentina, in order not to clash with the opening match of the World Cup in Qatarbetween the local team and Ecuador.
The fight for the number one, the possibility of Nadal and Djokovic to reach unprecedented heights in their careers and a new chapter in the clash between the Big 3 (with two of them on the field) and the new generations. And, of course, the promise of top-level tennis and matches full of intensity and emotion. The 2022 edition of the ATP Finals, an appointment not to be missed.
Zeballos, the Argentine standard bearer
Although there will be no Argentine racket in the singles tournament, where she played last diego schwartzmann In 2020, when it was still played in London, blue-and-white tennis will have a luxury bishop in Turin: Horace Zeballos.
The man from Mar del Plata, number 13 in the world doubles ranking, will play the season finale for the third consecutive edition and will try, together with the Spaniard Marcel Granollershis first title.
The Spanish-Argentinian duo, seeded seventh and winners in 2022 in Halle, will complement the red group together with those who will form the American Rajeev Ram and the British Joe Salisbury (2nd and champion in 2021), the Salvadoran Marcello Arevalo and the Dutch Jean Julien Rojer (3rd) and Finnish Harri Eliovaara and the British Lloyd Glasspool (6th).
In the Green they will play Dutch wesley kooloff and the British neal skupski (1st), the Croatians Pavic Matte Y Nikola Mektic (4th), the American austin krajicek and Croatian Ivan Dodig (5th) and the Australians Nick Kyrgios Y Thanasi Kokkinakis (8th).
Zeballos and Granollers played the tournament together in 2020 and 2021. They reached the semi-finals on both occasions. Two years ago they lost against Koolhof and Mektic and in the last edition against the French Nicolas Mahout Y Pierre Hugues Herbert. The Spaniard has won it once, in 2012, paired with his compatriot marc lopez.
The games of the first days
Sunday 13 November
7.30. Doubles, Red Group: Arévalo/Rojer vs. Glass Pool/Heliovaara.
Not before 10. Singles, Green Group: Ruud vs. Auger-Aliassime.
Not until 2.30pm Doubles, Red Group: Ram/Salisbury vs. Zeballos-Granollers.
Not before 17:00 Singles, Group Green: Nadal vs. Fritz.
Monday 14 November
7:30. Doubles, green group: Koolhof/Skupski vs. Kyrgios/Kokkinakis.
Not before 10. Singles, red group. Medvedev vs. rublov.
Not before 14:30 Doubles, green group: Mektic/Pavic vs. Dodig/Krajicek.
Not before 17:00 Singles, Red Group: Djokovic vs. Citsipas.
*All matches are on Argentinian time.
Source: Clarin
