Alexander Zverev finished the 2018 season with a bang, winning the biggest title of his career at the Nitto ATP Finals. That helped the German finish at year-end World No. 4.

Even though he was unable to maintain that momentum in 2019, Zverev managed to qualify for the season finale for the third consecutive year, and he showed some of his best tennis — including a straight-sets win against World No. 1 Rafael Nadal — to reach the semifinals in London. He closes out the campaign at World No. 7.

“To finish the year No. 7 in the world, for me, with all the things that happened to me and with all the things that were happening is actually quite incredible. I didn’t think I would. In that point, you can see it in a very positive way,” Zverev said. “Of course, I was very disappointed, because I wanted to win more tournaments. I wanted to play better at the big tournaments.”

Zverev triumphed in Geneva this year for his 11th ATP Tour trophy, and finishes the season with a 44-25 record. It is the fourth straight year in which he has eclipsed the 40-win mark.

“After the US Open I started playing much, much better. I hope I can take that into next season, and we will see,” said Zverev, who made the semi-finals of the China Open and then the championship match of the Rolex Shanghai Masters following a fourth-round showing in Flushing Meadows.

Zverev entered his clash against Dominic Thiem on Saturday with plenty of confidence following a must-win match that he triumphed in on Friday against Daniil Medvedev. But he was unable to find the same level against the Austrian star, who advanced to his first final at this event.

“The match was, I thought, pretty even. Dominic obviously played very good from the baseline,” Zverev said. “But today I was playing with no returns, actually. I was returning really bad and didn’t put a lot of pressure on his serve. And when I did, he was coming out with good serves, good points. Credit to him. I played a bad game in the second set, and that match was over a few games later.”

Zverev was one of four 23-and-under players to compete at The O2 this week. Two of those four (Zverev and Tsitsipas) made the semi-finals, and the German believes there will be more success for the sport’s rising stars in 2020.

“I think next year will bring a new Grand Slam champion. We’ll see who that will be, because I think the young guys are playing incredible tennis,” Zverev said. “It can be Daniil, it can be Stefanos, it can be Dominic. I’m in the mix, as well, I hope. We’ll see what next year brings. But I think for the young guys, it’s going to be an exciting year.”

Based on his childhood, it’s far more likely that Apostolos Tsitsipas would be coaching the Greek national football team than the country’s global tennis star, his son and World No. 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas, who beat six-time champion Roger Federer on Saturday to reach the title match of the Nitto ATP Finals in London.

Apostolos and his brother goofed around on a nearby, self-maintained “grass court” with wooden racquets as kids, but, growing up, Apostolos’ sports were football and basketball. He briefly competed on the Greek national football team.

As a sport science major at the University of Athens, he specialised in tennis for reasons that still elude him.

“It was strange because nobody from my background was involved in tennis,” he told ATPTour.com. “But I chose tennis, I don’t know why. Actually, that’s a good question.”

Rare is the coach of a top player who didn’t compete on the ATP Tour or at least collegiately in the U.S. Although they weren’t all household names as players, all but three coaches of the eight Nitto ATP Finals qualifiers earned ATP Ranking points during their playing days.

Coaches Of The Top 10 Players In The ATP Rankings

The former players turned coaches have been there done that and can offer experience as a top asset. But others, including Apostolos, have shown that playing inside The O2 in front of roaring crowds is not a prerequisite to leading a player into the Top 10.

Apostolos, along with his wife, Ioulia Salnikova, a former Top 200 WTA player, started teaching Stefanos tennis at the age of three. Dad focused on technique – his one-handed backhand, taking the ball early – and Mom on discipline, “Always do your best.”

When Stefanos was 12, Apostolos joined his son as his full-time coach, travelling with him to junior events across the world, and that’s where Apostolos remains today, in his son’s coaching box, the gray-haired father of four applauding and encouraging his 21-year-old son.

“It’s a big honour to have him next to me by my side,” Stefanos said. “I love him. He loves me. We have been together since the age of 12, travelling together. I appreciate that.”

When Apostolos was 20, in his third year at the University of Athens, he had only just decided on tennis as his sport. Three years later, at the age of 23, he played in his first tennis tournament of any kind, the Greek championships.

From there, his tennis coaching took him across the world. Apostolos travelled for two years with loulia on the WTA and studied tennis coaching for three more years in Vienna and Berlin in the early 1990s, during the the golden period of German tennis, when Boris Becker and Steffi Graf were at the top of the men’s and women’s games.

But his growing family of four required a more stable life, so he accepted a job as a country club teaching pro in Athens. Apostolos, armed with seven years of coaching education and a decade of recreational playing experience, tried to teach more than wins and losses to his players and their families. When the parents would want more wins, he’d ask for more time.

“I was explaining that we can do a lot of things, but we need to consider seriously that it will take us five, six years to develop a young player. But people, they’re not really patient enough to wait, to invest money, invest time,” Apostolos said. “You have to develop as an athlete, your body. You have to develop your mind… and you have to develop your technique.”

Years later, however, when Stefanos told his father he was ready to take tennis more seriously, Apostolos finally met a parent he could reason with: himself.

The two have been travelling together for nine years, with Apostolos helping Stefanos climb 76 spots in the ATP Rankings last year (91 to 15), and this year, the Greek has completed the Milan to London transition, from winning the 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals title to playing in the title match of the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals in London.

Despite guiding his son to unprecedented achievements in Greek tennis history, Apostolos doesn’t think of himself as the one making headlines. The father who has led his son every step of his career says that he feels fortunate his son has chosen him.

“With Stefanos, even though I studied so much, I just feel that I know very few things. You need to always be open-minded and ready to learn. Stefanos gave me such a chance to learn,” Apostolos said. “I think he was the best university for me.”

It’s a school of thought that can be rare among coaches of any sport, especially those at the top of their game. But, in this case, it sounds about right; it sounds like Apostolos Tsitsipas.

Dominic Thiem and Stefanos Tsitsipas both broke new ground on Saturday at the Nitto ATP Finals by reaching the championship match. Neither could wipe the smile from their face as they began their on-court interviews in front of the London crowd.

“This is just a big, big dream coming true for me,” Thiem said.

“I remember myself being one of these kids here, watching the event, and for me it was just, I could never picture myself standing here,” said Tsitsipas after eliminating Roger Federer 6-3, 6-4. “But it did happen. Dreams do come true.”

They are turning their dreams into a reality. This is a moment both men have been waiting for their entire lives, and for one of them, it will get even better when they lift the trophy at the season finale on Sunday.

“It is one of the best tournaments all year, one of the most prestigious tournaments all year and I’m getting the chance to play the final tomorrow. It’s unreal to me,” said Thiem, who ousted defending champion Alexander Zverev 7-5, 6-3 in the semi-finals. “To beat the defending champion, a good player, an unbelievable player, this is always a great achievement and I’m very, very happy.”

Three years ago, Thiem competed in the year-end championships for the first time. One of his hitting partners was an 18-year-old Tsitsipas, who at the time was in awe of the superstars around him.

“A little bit more and I’ll end up playing with all the players from the #ATPWorldTourFinals,” Tsitsipas wrote on Instagram to caption a picture of him with Thiem that week in 2016.

“A little bit more and I’ll end up playing with all the players from the ATP World Tour Finals.”

This was @StefTsitsipas in 2016 as a hitting partner for @ThiemDomi.

Tomorrow, the two will face off in this year’s final ?

?: Stefanos Tsitsipas (IG) | #NittoATPFinals pic.twitter.com/kJCv3nyxQr

— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 16, 2019

“Dominic has inspired me a lot to be a better version of myself when I’m out on the court. I see a lot of things that he does on the court, and I try to do the same. Because I have mentioned this before: what Roger does, only Roger does. It’s really difficult to copy what you see,” Tsitsipas said on Saturday. “So to me Dominic is more… normal, normal in a way that [he brings] something that’s possible.

“Dominic has always been someone that I looked up to and wanted always to play with the same intensity and the same will that he puts in the court. He puts in a lot of effort and… I would just describe him as an intense player. If he’s in the zone, he can just create so much opportunities with his game.”

Thiem leads the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head series 4-2, with their most recent meeting coming in October’s China Open final, in which the Austrian triumphed 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. That was the first time in this rivalry that the player who won the first set did not win the match.

“I just saw a picture before that I practised with him the first time I played here in 2016,” Thiem said. “It’s [an] amazing story for both of us, because probably both of us, we didn’t think that only three years later we were going to face each other in the final.”

This is just the second time since 1996 that the championship match at the Nitto ATP Finals will feature two players with one-handed backhands. In 1996, Pete Sampras beat Boris Becker, and in 2006, Roger Federer defeated James Blake.

“That’s a very nice fact, because I think there was a time where there were not many players with a one-handed backhand. And now me and also way younger, amazing players like Stefanos or Denis Shapovalov play [with a] one-handed backhand, so we are going to see it for also the next 10, 15 years, which is great,” Thiem said. “I think if you play it well like we do, it has a lot of advantages, and also, or maybe especially, indoors because of the slice, because of the many options you have.”

One area to look out for will be break point conversions. In the pair’s five previous meetings, they both have converted on 40 per cent of their break opportunities. Thiem has broken on 18 of 45 chances, while Tsitsipas has been successful on 14 of 35 attempts. On Saturday, Tsitsipas saved 11 of the 12 break points he faced against Federer, helping him move past the 38-year-old Swiss.

This is the eighth time that both finalists at the Nitto ATP Finals have made it that far for the first time.

If 21-year-old Tsitsipas wins title, he will be the youngest champion at the season finale since a 20-year-old Lleyton Hewitt in 2001. The Greek would become the sixth-youngest champion in the tournament’s 50-year history. John McEnroe holds the record for youngest champion, lifting the trophy in 1978, when he was 19. The five youngest titlist’s in the event’s history all reached No. 1 in the ATP Rankings.

Youngest Champions In Nitto ATP Finals History

Thiem was already the first Austrian to reach the semi-finals of the Nitto ATP Finals, including former World No. 1 Thomas Muster. In his first three appearances, Thiem earned one victory each, and did not reach the last four. Now he will try to claim the trophy in the same year he won his first ATP Masters 1000 title (Indian Wells).

Did You Know?
There will be a fourth straight first-time champion at the Nitto ATP Finals. The last time that happened in the tournament was from 1988-91 with Becker, Stefan Edberg, Andre Agassi and Sampras.

Three years ago, a teenage Stefanos Tsitsipas served as a hitting partner for Dominic Thiem during the Nitto ATP Finals. He’s since graduated to opponent as they face off on Sunday in the title match at The O2 in London.

Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune is hoping to emulate the Greek’s rapid transformation from top junior to top pro. The 16-year-old Dane, currently World No. 1 in the ITF Junior Rankings, joined Wimbledon boys’ singles champion Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan as hitting partners this week for the elite eight. Rune is hoping to not only match, but surpass Tsitsipas’ turnaround time in qualifying for the season-ending championship.

“He was a hitting partner like me. Now he’s here in the final. I hope I can be here in two years,” Rune said. “I’m going to keep working hard and hopefully get here as soon as possible.”

“A little bit more and I’ll end up playing with all the players from the ATP World Tour Finals.”

This was @StefTsitsipas in 2016 as a hitting partner for @ThiemDomi.

Tomorrow, the two will face off in this year’s final ?

?: Stefanos Tsitsipas (IG) | #NittoATPFinals pic.twitter.com/kJCv3nyxQr

— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 16, 2019

Rune and Tsitsipas shared a practice court several times this week. The Dane also regularly hit with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, in addition to warming up Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev for their matches.

“It’s been an unbelievable experience for me to play with the top players. To get information from Roger, Rafa and all the top guys has been awesome.” Rune said. “It’s still amazing to be here.”

The Dane has just started to take the first steps in his fledgling pro career. Rune competed in his first professional tournament this June, winning a round at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Blois. Having already declared lofty goals that include becoming No. 1 in the ATP Rankings and winning every Grand Slam, he’s confident that hitting with the world’s best will only help him achieve his dreams.

“I’ve always believed in myself and put high goals. I always go for my goals,” Rune said. “I just keep on going, keep working hard, keep working on the right things and I’ll get there.”

Clay-court specialist? Not Dominic Thiem, not in 2019.

The 26-year-old Austrian took another big step in his all-court transformation on Saturday, reaching the Nitto ATP Finals title match with a 7-5, 6-3 win against defending champion Alexander Zverev at The O2 in London.

“This is just a big, big dream coming true for me. It is one of the best tournaments all year, one of the most prestigious tournaments all year, and I’m getting the chance to play the final tomorrow. It’s unreal to me. To beat the defending champion, a good player, an unbelievable player, this is always a great achievement and I’m very, very happy,” Thiem said.

Zverev hit his first serve well, landing more than 75 per cent. But Thiem was tougher in the big moments, breaking in the 12^th game of the opening set when Zverev hit his third double fault, and in the sixth game of the second set after a cagey back-and-forth exchange. The Austrian also saved all four break points on his racquet.

During his first three trips to the season finale, Thiem won only three matches and never advanced out of the group stage. But he improved to 3-1 this week with the semi-final win and will face Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas on Sunday for the biggest title of his career. It will be the first Nitto ATP Finals title match between players with one-handed backhands since James Blake and Roger Federer played in the 2006 final.

“One-handed backhand final I guess.” ?

2006 was the last time this happened at the season-ending event! (Federer/Blake)

?: @TennisTV | #NittoATPFinals | @ThiemDomi pic.twitter.com/VXMSGbJxtF

— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 16, 2019

The Austrian leads Tsitsipas 4-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series and won their only 2019 matchup, last month on hard court in the China Open final. Tsitsipas advanced earlier on Saturday with a 6-3, 6-4 win against six-time champion Roger Federer.

“That’s a very nice fact, because I think there was a time where there were not many players with a one-handed backhand. And now me and also way younger, amazing players like Stefanos and Denis Shapovalov play [with] one-handed backhands, so we are going to see it for also the next 10, 15 years, which is great,” Thiem said.

“I think if you play it well like we do, it has a lot of advantages, and maybe especially indoors because of the slice, because of the many options you have.”

Thiem matched Zverev’s 2018 accomplishment earlier this week by beating Federer and Novak Djokovic at the season finale, and the fifth seed brought the same aggressive style and steely nerves against Zverev that helped him knock off the two legends.

Thiem struggled with his first serve in the opening set but defended his second serve well (60%, 12/20) and erased break points in the third and fifth games. Zverev wasn’t threatened on serve until he served to stay in it at 5-6 and was broken.

“[I] just didn’t use my chances,” Zverev said.

DELIGHT FOR DOMI ?

The moment @ThiemDomi secured his place in the #NittoATPFinals championship match ?

?: @TennisTV pic.twitter.com/e41HwW77x9

— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 16, 2019

The German bounced back early in the second set, but he was broken again during a nervy sixth game that saw him miss two overheads. Thiem, meanwhile, played through the pressure, erasing two break points the very next game to lead 5-2.

“I used those chances and, of course, these were the two keys because you don’t get so many chances to break him,” Thiem said.

The Austrian is through to his seventh final of the season and fourth on hard court. He won hard-court titles in Indian Wells (d. Federer), Beijing (d. Tsitsipas) and Vienna (d. Berrettini) and will try for a Tour-leading sixth title of the season.

Thiem also is on track for his highest year-end ATP Ranking finish at No. 4 and will go for his 50^th match win (49-18) of the season in the final.

Tomas Berdych, who announced his retirement from professional tennis on Saturday, was honoured alongside fellow retirees David Ferrer, Mikhail Youzhny, Marcos Baghdatis, Nicolas Almagro, Radek Stepanek, Max Mirnyi Victor Estrella Burgos and Marcin Matkowski at The O2, the London venue of the Nitto ATP Finals.

Former World No. 4 Berdych, who cites his 2010 Wimbledon final run as a ‘special moment’, admitted that he has no plans yet for his future. “The plan is actually not to have any plans, because the past 15, 20 years was so hectic and so demanding that I just need to just breathe out easily after all those years.”

The Czech, a winner of 13 ATP Tour singles titles, including the 2005 Rolex Paris Masters, competed at the Nitto ATP Finals on six occasions, between 2010-2015.

The nine players took part in an on-court ceremony following Stefanos Tsitsipas’ semi-final victory over Roger Federer on Saturday afternoon. Ross Hutchins, the ATP’s Chief Player Officer, then paid tribute to the retirees off the court, presenting them with frames highlighting standout moments of their careers.

Ferrer, who retired in May and has since been named the Tournament Director of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, rose to a career-high No 3 in the ATP Rankings and won 27 singles titles in a 19-season career. He finished runner-up at 2013 Roland Garros, triumphed at the Rolex Paris Masters in 2012 and was also the finalist at the 2007 Nitto ATP Finals

Fans’ favourite Baghdatis recorded 349 singles match wins in a career that ended at Wimbledon in July. The former World No. 8, who reached the 2006 Australian Open final, captured four ATP Tour titles. Youzhny finished his career one victory shy of 500 match wins in October 2018, but it didn’t matter to the former World No. 8 Muscovite, who spent 13 straights seasons in the Top 50 of the ATP Rankings and won nine titles from 20 finals.

Mirnyi, who retired also 12 months ago, climbed to the top of the ATP Doubles Rankings for the first time on 9 June 2003, and he would spend 57 weeks atop the doubles mountain. The Belarusian won 52 tour-level doubles titles, including 10 Grand Slam men’s doubles crowns (and eight in mixed doubles). He also captured the London 2012 Olympics mixed doubles gold medal with Victoria Azarenka. As a singles player, he ascended as high as No. 18 in the ATP Rankings.

Former World No. 9 Almagro clinched 13 titles from 25 clay-court finals, while Estrella Burgos broke into the Top 100 for the first time at the age of 33 and captured three Quito crowns. Stepanek, who stopped playing in November 2017, was a former World No. 8 singles player and No. 4 on the doubles court, earning the 2012 Australian Open and 2013 US Open crowns with Leander Paes.

Matkowski, who retired in June, partnered Mariusz Fyrstenberg to the title matches of the 2011 US Open and the Nitto ATP Finals. The Pole won 18 team crowns.

Tomas Berdych created plenty of memorable moments in London throughout his career. He endeared himself to the British public by reaching his lone Grand Slam final at 2010 Wimbledon and making six consecutive appearances (2010-2015) at the Nitto ATP Finals, winning new fans each year with his baseline game, centered on a powerful forehand, along with his composure under pressure.

The city proved a fitting location for Berdych to call time on his storied 17-year ATP Tour career. The 34-year-old Czech announced his retirement from professional tennis on Saturday at The O2 and took part in a special on-court ceremony that celebrated his achievements. Berdych competed in his final professional match at this year’s US Open and said an ongoing back injury forced him to step away.

Welcome back to London, @tomasberdych! ?#NittoATPFinals pic.twitter.com/STGXzKhalz

— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 16, 2019

“The feeling I went through in my last official match was one that told me I tried absolutely everything, but the end result is how it is,” Berdych said. “The level I was always chasing, the top results, being in the top positions [of the ATP Rankings]… My body doesn’t allow me to do so.

“I always look at situations very realistically. I was standing with my feet on my ground. When I made my decision with myself and [loved ones], I felt a big relief.”

Berdych won 13 ATP Tour titles during his career, including the 2005 Rolex Paris Masters (d. Ljubicic), when he arrived as a fresh-faced 20-year-old at No. 50 in the ATP Rankings. He also led the Czech Republic to the 2002 and 2003 Davis Cup titles. Berdych was a staple at the highest levels of the game for more than a decade, reaching the Top 10 during 11 seasons on Tour (2006-2008, 2010-2017) and peaking at No. 4 in May 2015.

But the Czech still viewed his Wimbledon final as the pinnacle of his career. He stunned defending champion Roger Federer in the quarter-finals, then followed up with a straight-sets win against Novak Djokovic before falling in the final to Rafael Nadal. Although some referred to his two weeks at The All England Club as a dream run, he viewed it as a logical extension of long hours on the practice court.

“I wouldn’t say ‘dream’. It’s a good result, but the results come after really hard work and that’s what I’m doing. That’s why I’m preparing every day,” Berdych said after his semi-final win over Djokovic. “It’s not happening as a miracle. You need to do something to bring those good results.”

Although Berdych’s game never betrayed him, he ultimately accepted that his body had. He missed the last five months of the 2018 season due to his back injury and was limited to nine tour-level events this year. Berdych’s consummate professionalism throughout his career, including attempts to regain full health, made it easier for him to hang up his racquets.

“I don’t have any regrets. Even the bad things or negative experiences I went through were there for a reason. Without them, I wouldn’t be as good as I was,” Berdych said. “I was always trying to do the best I possibly can. This is something you create with your achievements and your behavior. I was ready for every single match and putting 100 per cent into every time I stepped on the court.”

Although retiring from any profession after 17 years poses challenges, Berdych is ready for the next chapter of his life. He’s eager to spend more time with loved ones and explore new possibilities that are available to him.

“The plan is not to have any plans. The last 15 or 20 years were so hectic that I just need to breathe out easily,” Berdych said. “I need to have time for myself and my family, who gave me almost everything. I didn’t have the proper time because the tennis career requires being very selfish and absolutely into the sport. And now I have the time.

“Sport was my life from the time I was a kid until now and I wouldn’t change that, absolutely not. But if it’s just going to be [my profession] or just as my hobby, I really don’t know. And I don’t want to know. I really just want to have every day as a clean slate.”