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Last weekend, Caroline Garcia was the last woman standing at the WTA Finals in Fort Worth, Texas. Now it's time for the best eight men to battle for the final trophy of the year at the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy.
The format features two groups (Red and Green) for round-robin action, followed by knockout rounds from the semifinals. Let’s take a look at who will be competing in order of UTR Rating.
Novak Djokovic (16.19)
ATP Ranking: No. 8
UTR Pro Tennis Tour Ranking: No. 1
2022 Highlights: 4 titles (Rome, Wimbledon, Tel Aviv, Astana)
2022 Record: 37-7
ATP Finals Appearances: 14 (five-time champion)
Five-time champion Novak Djokovic is hoping to tie Roger Federer's record of six year-end titles. The Serbian may be ranked low (for him) in the ATP Tour rankings, but he's No. 1 based on UTR Rating. He's landed in the Red Group along with Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, and Stefanos Tsitsipas, while Rafael Nadal leads the Green Group with Casper Ruud, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Taylor Fritz.
Djokovic has a winning match record against both Tsitsipas (9-2) and Medvedev (7-4) and is 1-1 against Rublev. There's a lot on the line: If the eventual champion goes undefeated, he'll take home a whopping $4,740,300 in prize money. The race for year-end No. 1 is still on as Carlos Alcaraz withdrew with an abdominal tear. Nadal and Tstispas both have a chance to secure the top spot.
Rafael Nadal (16.05)
ATP Ranking: No. 2
UTR Pro Tennis Tour Ranking: No. 2
2022 Highlights: 4 titles (Melbourne, Australian Open, Acapulco, Roland Garros)
2022 Record: 38-6
ATP Finals Appearances: 10
Nadal is the only player in the field with a winning record against everyone in his group. He's 3-0 against Ruud, 2-0 against Auger-Aliassime, and 2-1 against Fritz. In 10 career appearances at the year-end championships, Nadal has reached the final twice but has never actually won the trophy. It's one of the very few accolades missing from his collection. The new father has played just once since his fourth-round loss to Frances Tiafoe at the US Open, suffering an opening-round loss at the Paris ATP Masters 1000 to Tommy Paul. He'll be making his debut in Turin, as the event moved from London last year.
"London has been unforgettable, great. Now Turin," Nadal told press. "The Italian crowd is super passionate. So I'm very excited about enjoying this
Daniil Medvedev (16.03)
ATP Ranking: No. 5
UTR Pro Tennis Tour Ranking: No. 3
2022 Highlights: 2 titles (Vienna and Los Cabos) and 1 Grand Slam final (Australian Open)
2022 Record: 45-16
ATP Finals Appearances: 3 (2020 champion)
Medvedev seems to find another gear at the end of the season, having won the 2020 ATP Finals in London and reaching the final in Turin last year. The 26-year-old captured his 15th career title in Vienna at the end of October but didn't carry that winning momentum into the final ATP Masters 1000 of the year, in Paris, where he lost to Alex de Minaur. The year has already been a milestone for Medvedev as he became the first player outside the Big Four of Nadal, Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray to hold No. 1 ATP ranking spot since Andy Roddick in 2004.
Felix Auger-Aliassime (15.93)
WTA Ranking: No. 6
UTR Pro Tennis Tour Ranking: No. 5
2022 Highlights: 4 titles (Rotterdam, Florence, Antwerp, Basel)
2022 Record: 56-25
ATP Finals Appearances: 0 (debut)
Thanks to a huge surge in the latter half of the 2022 season, Auger-Aliassime secured his first-ever place in the ATP Finals. After losing in nine ATP Finals during his young career, the 22-year-old Canadian got over the hump to win Rotterdam in February. He then took things to another level in the fall by winning 13 matches for three titles in three different countries. His place in Turin was booked in his last tournament of the regular season, in Paris, where he reached the semifinals.
Taylor Fritz (15.91)
ATP Ranking: No. 9
UTR Pro Tennis Tour Ranking: No. 6
2022 Highlights: 3 titles (Indian Wells, Eastbourne, Tokyo)
2022 Record: 43-19
ATP Finals Appearances: 0 (debut)
Fritz became the eighth and final player to make the year-end championships field, but his UTR Rating tells otherwise, placing the American as the sixth-best player in the world. The 25-year-old captured the biggest title of his career in Indian Wells and added two more trophies, on grass, in Eastbourne and, on hard, in Tokyo. He found himself planning a trip to Italy in November when reigning US Open champion Alcaraz had to withdraw.
Stefanos Tsitsipas (15.83)
ATP Ranking: No. 3
UTR Pro Tennis Tour Ranking: No. 9
2022 Highlights: 2 titles (Monte Carlo, Mallorca)
2022 Record: 60-22
ATP Finals Appearances: 3 (2019 champion)
Tsitsipas has returned to the ATP Finals for the fourth year in a row. The 24-year-old Greek won the title in his debut back in 2019 but has struggled since, withdrawing after just one match in Turin last year. He just pushed Djokovic to a third-set tiebreaker in Paris. Djokovic would lose to fast-rising Dane Holger Rune in the Paris final. Rune also stopped Tsitsipas in the Stokholm final last month. To reach the No. 1 position in the ATP rankings, Tstisipas needs to go undefeated.
Casper Ruud (15.75)
ATP Ranking: No. 4
UTR Pro Tennis Tour Ranking: No. 14
2022 Highlights: 3 titles (Buenos Aires, Geneva, Gstaad) and 1 Grand Slam finals (Roland Garros, US Open)
2022 Record: 48-20
ATP Finals Appearances: 1 (2021 semifinals)
Ruud has enjoyed a historic season, one that saw him become the first Norweigian to contest a Grand Slam final at Roland Garros. He achieved the feat again just a few months later at the US Open. The 23-year-old has made himself comfortable inside of the ATP Top 5, though his UTR Rating puts him outside of the Top 10. He's more feared on clay courts as eight of his nine ATP titles have come on clay, but his US Open final was quite telling of his skills on a hard court.
Andrey Rublev (15.73)
ATP Ranking: No. 7
UTR Pro Tennis Tour Ranking: No. 16
2022 Highlights: 4 titles (Marseille, Dubai, Belgrade, Gijon)
2022 Record: 49-18
ATP Finals Appearances: 2 (group stage)
Rublev is hoping to get out of the group stage for the first time in three attempts. He's got an uphill battle ahead with losing records against two out of the three players in his group (Medvedev and Tsitsipas). Djokovic is the last formidable foe in Rublev's group. Rublev scored an impressive victory over the Serbian in this year's Belgrade final.
The action begins on Sunday starting with Ruud vs. Auger-Aliassime and then Nadal vs. Fritz.
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•UTR Ratings as of 10:00 a.m. EST, November 11, 2022.