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ATP World Tour Finals: Djokovic claims record seventh title – as it happened

Novak Djokovic claimed a record seventh ATP Finals title in Turin, defeating Jannik Sinner to round off a stratospheric season

• 19 Nov 2023 Djokovic beats Sinner! 6-3, 6-3
• 19 Nov 2023 Djokovic wins the first set v Sinner: 6-3
• 19 Nov 2023 Preamble

The greater the stakes , the greater the performance from Novak Djokovic . This has always been one of the key pillars of Djokovic’s success as he has swept up all significant titles in sight so many times over, and it has also been perfectly demonstrated throughout another triumphant week in Turin.

And that will be all from me. Thanks for reading, and congratulations to Novak Djokovic , who looks ominously fit, not to mention motivated to continue this dominance for the next few seasons. The way he played in the first set and a half simply left Sinner with no answer. Did Alcaraz’s Wimbledon win signal a changing of the guard? I don’t think so. Bye for now.

Djokovic has a chat with Henman on Amazon Prime: “I think I prepared myself very well for this match, for the atmosphere. I knew the place is going to go wild, it’s going to be very loud, the whole place supporting him. Obviously I knew that … but one thing is to know, and expect, and another is to actually experience.

“I think the match we had in the group stage really helped me prepare myself mentally and emotionally for what’s coming up … and I said yesterday, after the match against Alcaraz , I’ve been striking the ball really, really nicely. I’ve been feeling great on the court. And I’m very proud of this achievement – obviously, four out of five biggest trophies this year, after a very long season.

“Obviously, unpredictability … Not knowing whether I’m going to qualify for semis or not … thanks for Jannik, for allowing me to do that. And then I played arguably the two best matches. The circumstances of playing Alcaraz and Sinner – two best matches this year, no doubt. High, high level of tennis. I’m very thankful for another success.

“The match yesterday, and today – playing against the top players in the world, top rivals. Today, playing against the whole stadium as well, backing Jannik to win the trophy. He was in red-hot form, probably playing his best tennis … and I think I delivered when I needed to. I stayed tough. I had the better mentality. When I clinched the year world No 1 after beating Rune I kind of felt, you know, satisfied with that. I was not really fully into my remaining matches of the group. But luckily for me, I got the chance to be in the semis … and then when I got in the there I kind of switched on, you know, and delivered my A-game, no doubt.

“I feel great on the court, obviously I have to pick and choose and adjust my schedule a bit. I can’t play as much as I played maybe 10, 15 years ago. But when I play I try and bring my best game which I’ve been doing in the last few years.”

Hantuchova reckons Djokovic will win five more slams. (He has 24 now.) Rusedski thinks he’ll win four more: 28.

“I could see him playing for another three years,” says Henman. “The element that is out of his control is his speed of movement … when you get half a step slower, that is going to affect your game … I think he will play for three more years and maybe win two slams a year … I wouldn’t be surprised if he hits 30 majors. What he has achieved is truly remarkable.”

The Australian Open begins on 14 January 2024, so not long to wait for more tennis.

It appears that Sky Sports are taking on the rights for live tennis that Amazon Prime have had for the past several years.

It seems to be the end of the road for Amazon Prime’s tennis coverage. Catherine Whitaker, Tim Henman, Daniela Hantuchova and Greg Rusedski are reflecting on their five years working together … Tim Henman singles out Emma Raducanu’s US Open victory in 2021 as the high point. Mark Petchey drops in some banter about not being paid for any of the commentary he’s done in the past five years.

Djokovic speaks (translated from Italian): “Congratulations to Jannik, and to your team, even though I know it wasn’t the result you wanted today … to my team, thank you for helping me to get through this. I’m 36 now so things are a bit tougher. The work and dedication of my team is incredible … my family and my team give me joy and strength.

“Thanks [to the crowd] for the support I received, even if Jannik was your favourite … it’s very special to play in front of you, because of the pressure you bring.

And now in English: “I just want to thank all the people who don’t speak Italian. Thanks for following us through this very long season. For me it’s been a very successful one, one of the best I had in my career. We had a lot of tournaments played around the world … it’s amazing to see so many people supporting tennis. We are lucky to be a part of this wonderful sport. So thanks again and hopefully see you tomorrow … no, next year!”

“ Thank you very much everyone, ” Sinner says after a huge ovation from the crowd. “Good evening. Congratulations to Novak on everything you’ve won this season … you’re an inspiration, not only for everyone watching, but for all the players.

“Thanks to my team … we’ve made a lot of improvements … we had a chance to play against the best in the world, and we have to look at all the positive things we’ve done, this week and this season.

“I would like to thank the federation … in 2019 I played the [ATP Finals] NextGen, with a wildcard … a few years later to be here, at such a beautiful tournament … Thank you to all the sponsors and the umpires.

“And thanks to all of you [the crowd]. You looked after me like I was a little baby … and you gave me power … let’s see what happens next, we still have the Davis Cup.”

We’re ready for the presentations. Here’s Jannik Sinner! He shakes hands with the dignitaries on court and cracks a big smile, which is good to see. The crowd produce a huge cheer when he holds up his runner-up trophy.

Henman, on Amazon Prime , says that “was some of the best tennis I’ve ever seen” from Djokovic.

In the first set and a half, he was indeed untouchable. Sinner had no answer. And while there were a couple of unforced errors from Djokovic with the finish line in sight, Sinner still he had to show considerable resolve to avoid it being a complete walkover.

“ Djokovic is a champion ,” emails Simonetta Vallone. “But it was great to see this young Italian player give us all these emotions!”

“ Very special ,” says Djokovic on Amazon Prime in reacting to another victory. “One of the best seasons I’ve had in my life, and to crown it with a win against the hometown hero Jannik, who’s played such great tennis this week, it’s phenomenal.

“I’m very proud of these performances these last two days against the best two players in the world, Alcaraz and Sinner, next to me.”

“ Once again he showed us how powerful his mind is,” says the Amazon Prime pundit, Hantuchova, of Djokovic.

“It’s a hard lesson for him [Sinner] to learn today … He needs to improve his mind under pressure,” says Greg Rusedski alongside.

“He’ll be super proud … and he’ll so confident going into 2024,” adds Hantuchova of Sinner.

The story of that match , in a way, was how much character Sinner showed to at least slow the momentum of Djokovic, who started like a runaway train. Djokovic served with utter ruthlessness in that first set in particular – Sinner could not put any pressure on when he was returning. But anyway, that is Djokovic’s seventh ATP Finals title – he surpasses his old rival Roger Federer, who won six. He is out there on his own.

Djokovic beats Sinner! 6-3, 6-3

At 15-15 Sinner directs an ugly volley into the tramlines, not the sort of error you can afford when Djokovic can smell blood. Impressively, Sinner is back on it next up, spanking a clean ace down for 30-30. Another error from Sinner, though, and it’s championship point for the iconic Serb … And Sinner double faults, and that’s the lot!

*Sinner 3-6, 3-5 Djokovic (*denotes next server)

There are cracks appearing in the Djokovic game when it had previously looked close to perfect. He hits another volley long for 0-15. It’s soon 0-30, and there is tension in the air when some noise from the crowd causes Djokovic to stop his service action. Sinner dumps the next return tamely into the net, and then hits long, and Djokovic has wrestled it back to 30-30. Sinner errs wide again, with an arguably excessively high-tariff attempted winner, but at 40-30 some more accurate hitting from Sinner draws an error from his opponent, who nets from the baseline. Djokovic, nevertheless, rounds off the hold and Sinner has to serve to stay in this.

Sinner 3-6, 3-4 *Djokovic (*denotes next server)

That was a marathon. Djokovic misses what looks an easy volley, Sinner belts down an ace, and Sinner holds after a long, long battle! That was huge. Sinner is still in this - but only just. Can he exert any pressure on the Djokovic serve next up? The players sit down for a drink.

Sinner 3-6, 2-4 Djokovic (*denotes next server)

Sinner draws a round of applause from Djokovic when he pegs his opponent back to 15-15 after losing the first point. Sinner hits high and wide next up and his body language is suddenly indifferent at best, slumping his shoulders and picking at his racket. But he unloads an accurate forehand on the next point to bring it back to 30-30. A sweet ace down the middle and that’s 40-30, but again Sinner can’t press home his advantage, coughing up an error into the net for deuce.

Some determined defence keeps Sinner in the next point, before a somewhat mishit forehand loops over the net and in, leaving Djokovic motionless! A deuce battle ensues, with Sinner having a couple of looks at game point … The third one comes when a Sinner forehand sneaks over the net off the cord.

The deuce battle turns out to be lengthy indeed, with Djokovic fighting back against some accurate serving by Sinner, who has noticeably raised his game since that first set. And still the deuce battle goes on …

*Sinner 3-6, 2-4 Djokovic (*denotes next server)

Sinner, for the first time, has a glimmer on the Djokovic serve at 0-30. He aims down the line on the next point, going for the jugular, but veers out wide and that’s 15-30. The crowd is up, anyway, hoping the home favourite can get this break back … and they roar with delight when Djokovic hits wide next up! That’s 15-40! Do we have a ball game?

Djokovic serves up a booming wide serve that Sinner can’t get back. 30-40. Another chance for Sinner to break … the crowd yell out their encouragement even when Djokovic is about to serve. Sinner hits long, throwing away another precious break point, and gives it the double-handled teapot stance to show his disgust.

Djokovic, having been on the back foot on serve for the first time, rounds off the hold. Sinner goes to the corner of the court for his towel, and is visibly annoyed at having let that chance slip.

The Eiffel 65 classic “Blue” rings around the auditorium. It’s a classic in the sense it’s very old, anyway. Djokovic to serve again …

Sinner 3-6, 2-3 *Djokovic (*denotes next server)

A Djokovic forehand, fizzing down the line like a particularly well-directed firework, makes it 15-15. But Sinner keeps his head up and finds a way to win the game, eventually rounding it off with a cathartic smash. “A couple of very gritty holds,” says Petchey on commentary of Sinner’s recent efforts.

*Sinner 3-6, 1-3 Djokovic (*denotes next server)

Djokovic cracks an opening ace down the middle. Then one out wide. 30-0. Then down the middle. 40-0. Sinner has won two points against the Djokovic serve at this stage. It’s a quite phenomenal display of serving. Another big serve – Sinner gets the frame of his racket on this one – but the ball flies almost straight upwards. And that’s the game.

Sinner 3-6, 1-2 *Djokovic (*denotes next server)

It’s quickly 0-30, and Sinner is teetering. But he brings a roar from the crowd by ending a run of 14 points in a row for Djokovic with a well-struck forehand as his opponent tries to regain position in the centre of the court. Next up, there is a lengthy baseline exchange and Djokovic blinks first, sending the ball wide. Sinner pumps up the crowd, shaking his fist and demonstrating that he has not lost hope. But on the next point a fearsome forehand to the corner is simply too good from Djokovic. Sinner stretches for it as best he can but can only get the frame of his racket on the ball.

Break point Djokovic – Sinner wrestles it back to deuce – but more high-class hustle from the Serb earns him another break point. The Italian does remarkably well to commit to his shots despite being break point down. Djokovic tries to pass him down the line but the ball flicks off the net and out. Djokovic looks stunned! He soon has another break point, but Sinner battles with spirit yet again, earns himself a game point, and then thumps a big serve down the middle which wins him the game. He shakes his fist and roars. Could he find a way? Physically, Sinner has looked a bit off the pace, but perhaps he’s beginning to warm up?

*Sinner 3-6, 0-2 Djokovic (*denotes next server)

Another collection of top-drawer Djokovic serves to which Sinner simply has no answer. The love hold is sealed with a crisp ace out wide. Djokovic pumps his fist. Can he break his opponent again, next up?

Sinner 3-6, 0-1 *Djokovic (*denotes next server)

Uh-oh. Sinner falls a break down immediately in this second and potentially final set, and it’s a break to love. At 0-30 Sinner is distracted by some movement in the crowd when he’s about to serve. He then opts to challenge but the ball from his opponent is comfortably on the line. That’s 0-40. On the next rally it’s Djokovic who is in total control again – Sinner floats a backhand long – and the Serb is well on the road to victory here unless Sinner can stage some kind of spectacular recovery.

Djokovic wins the first set v Sinner: 6-3

Sinner puts up a fight on the first point, but Djokovic wins another attritional rally, and he roars and pumps his fist like he’s just won a grand slam. He’s up for this one. At 40-0 on Djokovic’s second serve, Sinner tries a spinning forehand but it drops wide. And that’s the first set. The straight-sets predictions are looking good right now. Djokovic is dominating, serving and returning with utter conviction and accuracy.

“The controlled aggression, the consistency, the power,” says Henman of Djokovic. “Sinner looked a little bit flat when he was down a break in that first set, but he’s got to retain his belief, which is easier said than done.”

“ Why did he beat Rune ?” asks Kevin Mulherrin. “It [throwing the game against Rune and eliminating Djokovic] would have been a perfectly valid tactic. The object is to win the tournament and beating Djokovic once is difficult enough but TWICE!

“Under similar circumstances I suspect Djokovic and a lot of other players would have been more calculating.”

Sinner 3-5 *Djokovic (*denotes next server)

Sinner fires a huge serve down the middle for 30-0, but misdirects a big forehand into the net for 30-15. Djokovic, unquestionably, is the player hitting the ball with more authority. Sinner fluffs a backhand from the baseline and it’s 30-30. Djokovic has yet to miss with a second-serve return, and he is exerting serious pressure on Sinner in every facet of the game. Still, the 22-year-old produces an excellent first serve for 40-15, then smacks an ace down the middle for the game. The crowd chant and cheer, but Djokovic can serve for the first set.

*Sinner 2-5 Djokovic (*denotes next server)

Djokovic has his game face on. A succession of pinpoint-accurate serves, and a clumsy mishit from Sinner, helps him to a love hold. Sinner has to serve to stay in the first set. At this rate Djokovic is going to make short work of this final. The players sit down for a drink, the DJ drops the latest rework of The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind) by the Bucketheads.

Sinner 2-4 *Djokovic (*denotes next server)

Sinner makes it 15-0 with a solid wide serve and winner into the open court. Djokovic gifts him the next point, hitting into the net, and at 40-0 Sinner tries to crush a forehand winner, inside-out, but only finds the net. However, Djokovic hits long next up, and Sinner reduces his first-set deficit, still a break down.

*Sinner 1-4 Djokovic (*denotes next server)

The Djokovic forehand is like a sledgehammer. He’s hitting it with complete authority, and Sinner is very much being forced on to the back foot, furrowing his brow and wondering how he can get a foothold in this first set. At 30-15, Djokovic cracks an ace down the middle, and easily wins the next point after a brief rally to seal the game.

“Novak Djokovic, the immovable force,” says Mark Petchey on commentary. I think he means immovable object?

Sinner 1-3 *Djokovic (*denotes next server)

After an unreturnable serve for 15-0, Djokovic leans into a hugely powerful forehand that would make most players crumble, but Sinner bravely stays in the point. Having gained the upper hand the Serb eventually hits a clean winner for 15-15. Sinner then mixes things up beautifully, crushing a big serve for 30-15, then hitting a delightful drop shot for 40-15 that Djokovic applauds.

Sinner comes to the net and volleys for the game, but Djokovic has his measure and hits a brilliant lob to peg him back to 40-30. Sinner unloads from the baseline on the next point, but can only find the net, and it’s deuce … then there is a break in play as it seems someone’s mobile phone is going off in the crowd. There’s always one.

At deuce, a powerful rally from both players ends with Sinner hitting long – it looks in – the Italian decides not to challenge, but Hawkeye indicates it did indeed clip the line. Oh well – Sinner coughs up an unforced error next up, hitting wide with another attempted big hit – and Djokovic is a break up.

*Sinner 1-2 Djokovic (*denotes next server)

At 30-0, Djokovic whips a powerful backhand wide – a sloppy error by his exacting standards. He’s back on it on the next point, bending an ace beyond the reach of Sinner for 40-15. The Italian is wayward with his next return, sending it wide, and that’s another easy enough hold for Djokovic. Time for a drink and a tune or two from the in-house DJ.

Sinner 1-1 *Djokovic (*denotes next server)

Whoah. There’s a helluva rally on the first point of Sinner’s service game. Sinner looks to have hit a winner cross-court, after a lengthy exchange from the baseline, but Djokovic hunts it down and returns with interest. Sinner holds on for 15-0. But the Serb is striking the ball imperiously. Djokovic hits long – 30-0 – then Sinner flops a shot into the net from the baseline for 30-15. Sinner thumps a massive wide serve for 40-15 which Djokovic, somehow, gets a racket on, but Djokovic hauls him back to 40-30. A lovely drop shot by Sinner seals the game and he pumps his fist, relieved to have avoided a deuce battle with his tenacious opponent.

*Sinner 0-1 Djokovic (*denotes next server)

A solid first serve down the middle sets up Djokovic to win the first point of the match. Then an ace, and it’s quickly 30-0, and another ace shaped out wide for 40-0. Sinner manages to get into a rally on second serve at 40-0, but is never really in the point, and that’s a very strong hold for Djokovic to kick things off.

“ I don’t think this is going to be a straight-sets match, I think this is going the distance,” says Greg Rusedski. “Today’s going to be a lot about belief. How much does Jannik Sinner really believe he can beat Novak Djokovic ?”

“ For me, I just think Djokovic is going to be a different animal,” says Tim Henman, court-side for Amazon Prime. “I think he’s going to find that way to play a little bit better and get across the line.”

Henman adds he thinks it’ll be Djokovic in straight sets, and Hantuchova agrees.

Sinner’s out on court first , bouncing up and down on his toes, shaking hands with the officials, all that jazz. Djokovic soon joins him. The Serb wins the toss and elects to serve first. Time for a quick photo and we are ready to go.

Here come the players. The young Italian, ranked No 4, is out first.

Are you a Sinner, or are you a winner? Maybe he can be both.

And now here’s Djokovic, walking out to suitably dramatic music.

Here we go, then. Well nearly. The Amazon Prime coverage has fired up, and the pundits are having a chat. “If he stays injury free, he should be lifting a grand slam next year,” says Daniela Hantuchova of Sinner’s progress.

My prediction is that this will definitely go to three sets.

In doubles news , Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury retained their ATP Finals title earlier on, beating Marcel Granollers and Marc Ceballos 6-3, 6-4 in the final.

TITLE DEFENDED 🏆🛡️ @RajeevRam & @joesalisbury92 are the best of the best in Turin, powering past Granollers/Zeballos 6-3, 6-4! #NittoATPFinals pic.twitter.com/1dtsdVa04s — ATP Tour (@atptour) November 19, 2023

Andy Murray has been forced to withdraw from the Davis Cup and end his season after suffering a shoulder injury in training. He had been training at the National Tennis Centre this week and preparing for the final event of the year when he suffered the injury. Great Britain face Serbia on Thursday in Málaga at the Final 8 knockout stage of the Davis Cup finals.

Forget the tennis. A much bigger match will take place in Wimbledon next week as the All England Lawn Tennis Club takes on another local council over its plan to build an 8,000-seat stadium on a Grade II*-listed park .

The AELTC will on Tuesday night attempt to convince Wandsworth’s planning committee to vote through its proposal to build the 10-storey show court and 38 other grass courts on Wimbledon Park. Campaigners have described the proposals as an “industrial tennis complex”.

“ I predict Sinner to win ,” emails Abdul. “He has the momentum.”

After losing the semi-final, Medvedev predicted that Sinner – if he keeps up this form – will become world No 1 and win multiple grand slams. So perhaps Medvedev would agree with you, Abdul.

Then again, it’s Djokovic isn’t it? I didn’t see the semi-finals but it sounds like he fairly blew Alcaraz off the court.

For me, a tough one to call, but a match that both players will want to win. More searing insight coming up soon.

Will Sinner repeat the feat of earlier in the week and beat Djokovic a second time? Or will the Serb grind his precocious opponent into the dust? You can email me with your predictions.

This final, by the way, is best of three sets, just like all the other matches in the tournament.

Djokovic, it is fair to say , was not a happy customer on Thursday afternoon after he beat the alternate, Hubert Hurkacz, in three sets. The dropped set meant that qualification was put out of his hands and he proceeded to give some distinctly snippy post-match interviews. But it turned out all right when Rune was defeated by Sinner later that night.

The tale of the tape : Djokovic leads Sinner 3-1 in their head-to-head.

Djokovic won at the Monte Carlo Masters in 2021, in two sets, then at Wimbledon in 2022 and 2023. The quarter-final in 2022 was a five-setter when Djokovic hit back from two sets down in typically tenacious style. The semi-final this year was in straight sets.

But Sinner, of course, had Djokovic’s number earlier this week, which is what makes today’s match so fascinating.

Australia have just beaten India by six wickets to win the ODI Cricket World Cup!

Novak Djokovic has today’s opponent, Jannik Sinner, to thank for the fact he’s still here. Following the Serb’s group stage defeat by the Italian , Djokovic would have been eliminated had Holger Rune beaten Sinner on Thursday night.

As things turned out the home favourite won in three, which meant Djokovic joined him, Daniil Medvedev and Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals of this season-closing event in northern Italy. Djokovic blew away Alcaraz (the man who beat him in an epic Wimbledon final ) while the Russian, Medvedev, was dispatched by the increasingly confident Sinner.

Which brings us to today’s final. Djokovic already has the Australian Open, French Open and US Open in the trophy cabinet this year. Can the world No 4 find a way past the irrepressible Serb and prompt a smattering of erroneous ‘changing of the guard’ headlines? We’re about to find out.

Match start: 5pm UK time

• Novak Djokovic

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ATP World Tour Finals

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The ATP World Tour Finals is the season-ending competition in men's professional tennis, featuring the top-eight singles players (and doubles teams) in the world rankings. Participants are split into two groups of four for round-robin play before traditional semifinal and final rounds determine a champion. Evolved from the year-end tournament known as the Masters Grand Prix that began in 1970, the ATP World Tour Finals has been held at the O2 Arena in London since 2009, when Barclays became the event sponsor. Roger Federer won a record-breaking sixth season-ending title in 2011.

The origin of the ATP World Tour Finals dates back to 1970, when the International Tennis Federation set up a grand prix structure of year-long events to culminate with a Masters event in Tokyo in December that featured the top-ranking men's players for that season. (The ITF rival tour, the World Championship Tennis Tour, also featured a season-ending event at the time, the WCT Finals.)

Ilie Nastase won four Masters titles in five appearances between 1971 and 1975, as the ITF became linked with the Association of Tennis Professionals, which would eventually run the men's tour. The year-end Masters moved to other major cities around the world in its first decade, including Paris, Barcelona, Boston, Melbourne, Stockholm, and Houston, before establishing a home at Madison Square Garden in New York from 1977 to 1989.

Bjorn Borg of Sweden won back-to-back events in 1979 and 1980, while American John McEnroe won three titles in his hometown. Ivan Lendl reached nine consecutive finals from 1980 to 1988, winning the championship in five of those years.

The event's name was changed to the ATP Tour World Championships in 1990, and it was held in Frankfurt and Hanover in Germany from 1990 to 1999. Those championships were dominated by Pete Sampras of the U.S., who won five titles during that period to tie Lendl's record mark.

The ITF and ATP made additional changes after the 1999 competition, when the ATP Tour World Championship and the men's Grand Slam Cup (a tourney held between 1990 and 1999) were discontinued and replaced by a new jointly owned, year-end men's event called the Tennis Masters Cup. Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten made history in the inaugural Tennis Masters Cup (played in Lisbon, Portugal) by becoming the first South American to finish the year with ATP's No. 1 ranking by defeating Sampras and Andre Agassi in the semifinals and final, respectively.

Australian Lleyton Hewitt won on home soil when the Tennis Masters Cup moved to Sydney in 2001, and he repeated as champion the following year in Shanghai. After two years in Houston -- with Roger Federer of Switzerland the victor both times -- the tournament returned to Shanghai for a four-year run from 2005 to 2008. Federer won successive titles in 2006 and 2007 before Novak Djokovic captured his first Tennis Masters Cup in 2008.

The event was renamed in 2009 as the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, with the O2 Arena in London named as host for the 2009 through 2012 tournaments. After Nikolay Davydenko won the 2009 edition, Federer claimed the trophy for a fifth time in 2010, equaling the mark of most individual titles set by Lendl and Sampras. He followed that up with another win in 2011, setting the event record with his sixth championship.

Format/Qualification

Qualification of entrants for the ATP World Tour Finals is based on ATP Tour rankings for that calendar year:

1. A selection list for the event includes: a) The top seven players in the ATP rankings as of the Monday after the final ATP World Tour tournament of the calendar year; b) Up to two Grand Slam winners from that year, in order of their positions, ranked between 8 and 20 in the ATP rankings as of that qualification date; and c) Players positioned eight and below in the ATP rankings as of that qualification date.

2. Direct Acceptances: The top-eight players in the selection list qualify for the event as direct acceptances. All direct acceptances must be available for play through the completion of the round-robin competition and the knockout competition, if eligible. Any withdrawal is replaced by the next highest positioned player on the selection list.

The O2 Arena is a multipurpose indoor arena located in London that has hosted numerous sporting events and musical/entertainment acts. Part of a larger O2 entertainment complex on the Greenwich peninsula in London, the arena was opened in 2007 after three years of construction that redeveloped the Millennium Dome venue that housed the Millennium Experience in the city.

With an overall diameter of 365 meters and a volume equal to two of London's old Wembley Stadiums, the O2 Arena is the second largest arena in the United Kingdom. Various seating arrangements can be set up for events at the arena, which can hold a maximum capacity of 20,000.

The O2 Arena has played host to NHL regular-season games, NBA exhibition games, a number of UFC mixed martial arts events and the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 2009. The facility was selected to serve as the home for tennis' ATP World Tour Finals from 2009 to 2012 and will become a venue for gymnastics and basketball events at the 2012 Olympic Games.

ATP World Tour Finals Year-by-Year Results

Gravy on a grand season.

Novak Djokovic is your top dog for a reason. He held off Roger Federer 7-6 (6), 7-5 to win the World Tour Finals championship. Story »

ATP WORLD TOUR FINALS QUICK FACTS

2012 atp world tour finals field.

The Grand Slams, ATP and WTA all want to control tennis. Do they have the power?

A grand struggle for power lies at the heart of every tennis match. Right now, it’s also at the heart of the sport itself.

Here at the Madrid Open, the moment that had all the insiders buzzing happened earlier this week, not on a dusty red court, but in the players’ lounge.

There, in plain sight — not cloistered in an office or luxury suite — the de facto leaders of the two competing visions for the future of tennis sat just a few feet from each other, making their cases to whomever they could get to listen: players and agents; tournament directors and owners.

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On one side is the proposal from the Grand Slams for a streamlined elite tennis tour . On the other is the push f rom the existing ATP and WTA tours to maintain something like the status quo, only more of it, with one more big tournament and some more money, thanks to a significant investment from Saudi Arabia .

As the leaders of the biggest tournaments go back and forth with their counterparts about who controls tennis moving forward, there is an odd truth that neither side wants to talk about: what ultimately happens, and who ultimately ends up holding the power, isn’t really up to them.

In reality, the two camps are staging a kind of beauty contest, whose judges are also in two camps.

One: a handful of executives and organizations who control the biggest tournaments outside the four Grand Slams of Wimbledon and the U.S., French and Australian Opens. Two: a couple of dozen players whose participation drives the sport.

That’s why Craig Tiley, the chief executive of Tennis Australia and one of the prime movers for the Grand Slams’ effort to create an elite premium tour, arrived early in Madrid to meet with players and the managers, lawyers and agents who represent them, knowing full well how badly many of them want reform , especially when it comes to the length of their schedule.

It let him impress on them that what the leader of the ATP tour, Andrea Gaudenzi, has been pushing moves them further away from what they want — although, much of what Tiley was discussing wasn’t about the premium tour, but how an additional tournament would mess up their off-seasons and wreck his Australian season of tennis.

They are the two men sitting 30 feet apart that got people’s attention.

For his part, Gaudenzi, an Italian former tennis pro, held his board meetings, ploughing ahead with the process of adding that additional tournament — and likely the Saudi money — to the tour coffers.

Polite and decorous as it might look on the surface, tennis is a brutal sport, and so, too, is the business of running it.

Two days later, despite Tiley’s efforts, word was spreading via an Italian tennis website that the ATP had reached a deal with Saudi Arabia to hold another mandatory top-level event that will start the season in the coming years. That would threaten the viability of Australian Open tuneups in Australia and New Zealand and the United Cup, a mixed event, also in Australia, that the ATP organizes with Tiley’s Tennis Australia and the WTA. It offers $10million (£8m) in prize money, making it one of the biggest pay weeks for female players.

By late afternoon, the ATP had put out a message on X, formerly Twitter, that it had not made any decision on the tournament. Final bids for the event were due Wednesday. “We would like to clarify that these reports are inaccurate,” the ATP stated. “No decisions have been made and any updates will be communicated at the appropriate time.”

Welcome to the corridors of tennis power: a fractured hall of mirrors where nothing is quite as it seems.

More prize money, less tennis, equal pay: Grand Slams launch premium tour offensive

As in most sports, there are three forces which drive tennis: money, fame, and inertia, and they are pretty evenly divided among the players and the eight entities that run the sport.

The Grand Slams and the nine largest other tournaments which aren’t Grand Slams, known as the “Masters 1000s”, basically control the money, accounting for something like 80 per cent or more of the revenues in tennis by some estimates. It’s hard to calculate, since plenty of tournaments do not make their finances public, not even with players.

Players control most of the fame. They are the stars of the show, the boldface names who pull fans into the sport, their images plastered onto billboards in major cities all across the world throughout the year.

“Try having a tournament without players,” Stefano Vukov, coach to women’s world No 4 Elena Rybakina, said Friday afternoon. “You can’t do it. I promise you.”

At this Madrid Open, the players have been trying to go about their business while confused about what the future holds.

Once they get locked into an important event, they try to actively ignore everything that isn’t their next match. Some also need to be cautious because of the incestuous nature of the sport: their agents often work for companies that own tournaments. Some players who delve into the politics of tennis soon pull back if they sense it is distracting them from trying to win.

Tennis’ top women say the sport is broken. This is why

Iga Swiatek, the women’s world No 1, ticks all three of those boxes, since she is represented by the sports and entertainment conglomerate IMG, which owns the tournament currently ongoing in the Spanish capital and also the Miami Open, played recently in the U.S. Still, she could not hide her ongoing frustration at how the sport operates, with only a limited formal role for player input. 

“I’ve been really involved, last year, especially with all this, politics and sports a little bit, and I feel now I need to kind of focus on myself,” Swiatek said after winning her opening match Thursday night. “But I want to speak out when I feel like it’s important and it’s going to do something.”

“I just really, really hope that it’s going to change and we will have a say, or at least we’re going to be informed much, much earlier of changes.”

Ons Jabeur, the two-time Wimbledon finalist, sounded a similar note about the ongoing battle.

“For me as a player, it’s like a movie,” Jabeur said, following her opening triumph. “I’m watching them fighting it out there. But I feel like whatever is going to happen, the players need to be involved.”

The WTA, the men’s game’s ATP — and to a lesser extent the International Tennis Federation — have inertia on their side.

They license and sanction more than 100 other tournaments around the Grand Slams and also help sell some of the media and sponsorship for the tour. They set up a schedule that largely guarantees a professional tennis match is taking place somewhere nearly every day for roughly 11 months. They collect the revenue: media payments, sponsorships and other licensing agreements. Players end up with roughly a quarter of it, with the rest going to overheads and administration.

All that makes the tours seem like the sport’s alpha dogs, which is just what they want.

It might seem like that means they have the power, but the tours don’t control the players. The players are independent contractors, free to play tennis wherever they want if they can find someone to pay them — the way some of the world’s top golfers found a willing partner in Saudi Arabia .

That is especially true at the moment, because the Grand Slams have yet to renew the agreement that obligates them to organize their draws based on the ATP and WTA rankings, which the tours oversee. For now, it’s a detail because Grand Slams are still acting as though the deal is still in place. But there is an implicit threat in their refusal to sign a new agreement; a message that they could use some other rankings systems that ignore the tours, which would allow players into their tournaments whether the tours like it or not.

Still, a great tennis player does not have many alternatives for making millions of dollars from playing the sport without the platform and the competitions the tours offer.

Saudi Arabia's new $1billion proposal and the battle to control tennis

It also might seem like the tours have total control over the tournaments to which they have sold licenses, granting them the ability to operate as official events. But the only important tournaments they actually own are the season-ending tour finals.

They also have the least amount of control over the most important and lucrative tournaments on their tours, those Masters 1000 events that function as the sport’s gilded breakaway republic: Indian Wells, Miami and Cincinnati in the U.S., Monte Carlo in the south of France, Madrid, Rome in Italy, Montreal and Toronto in Canada, China’s Shanghai and Paris.

Many of these are storied events, such as Indian Wells, known as the “Fifth Slam ”, and the Italian Open. Those tournaments got together and decided to sell their media rights as a separate package, through a separate company called ATP Media. The actual ATP? It has about a 10 per cent stake in that company. In most realms, the people who control the most money hold the most power, and here and overall, tennis is no different.

This is why the battle to control the sport has become a beauty contest between rival proposals from the Grand Slams and the existing tours about how to fix tennis .

Those Masters 1000 events already have some financial separation from the existing tours, though lawyers would have their work cut out trying to undo existing contracts. And pro tennis can’t exist without the best players, who can choose where to take their power and who to bless with it.

Those are each contestant’s top attributes.

What exactly do the judges in this contest want?

Beyond the dreams of winning the biggest titles, most players who have the levels required to play an event such as the Madrid Open want two basic things from their tennis careers. They want an opportunity to make a good living and they want to be able to play in the events they grew up watching on television.

Those are mostly the Grand Slams, maybe their home country’s Masters 1000 if there is one, or the tournament that takes place closest to their hometown. Frances Tiafoe, who grew up in the U.S. state of Maryland, has said he only cares about two tournaments, the U.S. Open and the Citi Open in nearby Washington, D.C.; Swiatek doesn’t miss the WTA event in Poland’s capital Warsaw, her hometown.

In this light, the Masters 1000 tournaments want to be seen as premium events — if not on par with the Grand Slams, then as close as possible to them.

For the Grand Slams, the key to being able to create a premium tour may come down to convincing a critical mass of the Masters 1000s events to at least threaten to break with the existing tours.

Instead of being closely associated with a score of random tournaments everywhere from Antwerp in Belgium to Houston in Texas, they could be part of an elite group of events that includes Wimbledon, the most historic and important tournament in the sport. Implicit in that is the idea that tennis’ geographic reach is an albatross rather than a calling card, which many figures in all four groups — and many more fans — would dispute.

The Grand Slams will also have to convince the players, especially the stars who hold the most sway over everyone else, they are better off playing on a premium tour which the Slams say will pay them more money for doing less work.

The concept, according to the proposal from the Grand Slams, will double prize money for the top 300 men and nearly quadruple prize money for the top 300 women, who will from inception receive the same prize money as the men on the premium tour, instead of waiting until 2027 for that to happen under the ATP and WTA.

Those players won’t have to spend the year chasing rankings points and feeling like they are losing ground every time they want to take a week or two off between more important events to rest or train. And they will get a six-to-eight-week off-season as well.

Lower-ranked players have been promised more money too, and if their tour is set up properly, with regional circuits and promotion and relegation, they will have to spend less on travel and get more clarity on how they can make the step up.

How to fix tennis

Where would that leave the existing ATP and WTA? Those organizations would likely have a role in helping to govern that premium tour and making sure money from it filters down to the smaller tournaments, on that so-called “Contender Tour”, for the players vying to make the big show and top players seeking extra matches and appearance fees.

For the tours, winning the beauty contest means convincing the Masters 1000s they don’t need the Grand Slams, that they already exist as a premium tour, and that being the highest quality events on the men’s and women’s tours is better than being the poor relations of the Grand Slams, especially given the litigation they would likely face if they tried to break away.

They have also dangled a windfall of roughly a billion dollars in front of the Masters 1000s and the players, which will arrive in full when they add an additional top-level event as soon as 2026, though it’s not clear they can deliver on that figure. Advocates for players say it’s more like $500m at the moment, and once it filters through the system, there won’t be much left over for them.

It’s a contest that should go on for a while, with moves and countermoves, back and forth, surges and lead changes.

Not unlike a tennis match.

(Top photos: Adrian Denis/AFP; Tim Clayton/Corbis; Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

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Matthew Futterman is an award-winning veteran sports journalist and the author of two books, “Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed” and “Players: How Sports Became a Business.”Before coming to The Athletic in 2023, he worked for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Star-Ledger of New Jersey and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He is currently writing a book about tennis, "The Cruelest Game: Agony, Ecstasy and Near Death Experiences on the Pro Tennis Tour," to be published by Doubleday in 2026. Follow Matthew on Twitter @ mattfutterman

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