If grand slams brought the best players in the world together, then the Nitto ATP Finals drew the roster down even further to leave eight elite top-ten professional players battling it out for the crown. To qualify for the tournament is a fight in itself, with every major ATP tournament having its say in pushing players up the ranking ladder.
All eight places have been confirmed, with Holger Rune and Alexander Zverev confirming their spots as late as November 3. The prospect of seeing the creme de la creme of tennis contest for the crown is an enticing scenario and the draw for the tournament promises to keep the intensity high.
Nitto ATP Finals draw
The eight players are split into two groups—red and green—for the round-robin stage. In singles, Novak Djokovic, as world no. 1, leads the green group, while second-ranked Carlos Alcaraz leads the red group.
Joining Djokovic in the green group are world no. 4. Jannik Sinner, world no. 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas and world no. 8 Holger Rune. Joining Alcaraz in the red group are world no. 3 Daniil Medvedev, world no. 5 Andrey Rublev and world no. 7 Alexander Zverev.
The doubles draw sees Ivan Dodig/Austin Krajicek, Santiago Gonzalez/Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Marcel Granollers/Horacio Zeballos and Maximo Gonzalez/Andres Molteni form the green group, while Wesley Koolhof/Neal Skupski, Rohan Bopanna/Mathew Ebden, Rajeev Ram/Joe Salisbury and Rinky Hijikata/Jason Kubler form the red group.
The round-robin stage will see each player or team face each other once before the top two from either group progress to the semifinals. The final is set to take place on Sunday, November 19, 2023.
World no.9 Hubert Hurkacz and world no. 10 Taylor Fritz are the two alternate players on the sidelines who would participate in case of any injuries or other reasons.
Djokovic faces record-breaking prospect
In a season of records, Novak Djokovic will look to surpass one another in his time in Turin during the Nitto ATP Finals. If he wins the competition, Novak will win his seventh Nitto ATP Finals title and break his tie with Roger Federer’s record.
Djokovic was well aware of the grandeur of the records he was chasing and chose to remain humble and grounded in his quest for the year-ending tournament’s crown.
“I try to be a good student of the game and keep track of the numbers, but at the same time, I also want to be able to just direct my attention to the next challenge,” he said after winning the Paris Masters. “As long as I’m an active player, I guess that’s going to be the mentality I will nurture.”
Novak also spoke about the Nitto ATP Finals and its competitiveness by bringing forth the points at stake to notice.
“Every match is going to be like finals of a big tournament, because you play a top-eight player,” he said. “Every match carries a lot of [Pepperstone ATP Rankings] points, carries a lot of importance.
In a year where he became the athlete to win the most grand slams, Djokovic has a chance to finish as year-end No. 1 for the eighth time and pass 400 weeks at No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.
What are your opinions on the competition involved in the Nitto ATP Finals? Will Djokovic triumph for a record eighth time? Let us know in the comments section below.
