Another ATP Tour season full of gripping storylines, magic moments and standout achievements is in the books… but which matches from 2023 will live longest in fans’ memories?

The Top 4 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings — Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner — were among those to play their part in some classic encounters this year. As part of of ATPTour.com’s annual season-in-review series, we count down the best matches on the ATP Tour this season. On Sunday, we will focus on the best Grand Slam matches of the year.

5) Indian Wells R16, Medvedev d Zverev 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-5
Medvedev and Alexander Zverev reactivated their Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalry after 15 months away in style at the BNP Paribas Open in March. Medvedev clung on for a thrilling three, hour, 16-minute triumph in Indian Wells to extend his early-season winning streak to 17 matches, but that only told half the story of the fourth-round clash at the ATP Masters 1000.

Zverev was 8-7 for the year heading into the match and was still rebuilding confidence in his movement after missing the second half of 2022 with a serious right ankle injury. Yet the German came out strong against an opponent who was fresh from lifting consecutive trophies in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai. It was only after Medvedev saved all 10 break points he faced in the second set, during which he also rolled heavily over his right ankle, that the then-World No. 6 was able to wear down the German and reach his first Indian Wells quarter-final.

“When I twisted [my ankle], I thought I was going to stand up just fine,” Medvedev said. “But then the pain started growing very fast, so I was like ‘That is not a good sign’… It was one of the first times in my life that the physio had taped my ankle, so I decided to give it a try. What was surprising was it was much easier to run than walk. So when I was walking I was limping and then I was running fine.”

4) Adelaide 1 F, Djokovic d Korda 6-7(8), 7-6(3), 6-4
A blockbuster way to kick-start 2023 at the Adelaide International 1. Novak Djokovic had dispatched third seed Medvedev with ease in the semi-finals at the ATP 250 but was forced to battle back from the very brink to overhaul Sebastian Korda and seal his 92nd tour-level crown in the opening week of the season.

Korda’s fearless approach to an engrossing encounter that featured plenty of intense baseline exchanges earned him a championship point at 6-5, 30/40 on Djokovic’s serve in the second set. Yet the American was unable to find the decisive blow to clinch victory in his maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with the Serbian great. Djokovic kept his cool to force a tie-break before finding a late break of Korda’s serve in the decider to clinch victory. In a nod to his resilience throughout the match, the top seed tapped his temple with his finger after completing his win.

“I’d probably say that you were closer to victory today than I was,” Djokovic said to Korda during the trophy presentation. “It was decided in one or two shots, one or two points. Tough luck today, but the future is bright for you, so just keep going, and you’re an amazing player.”

Djokovic’s plaudits of Korda were further backed up a few weeks later, when the American reached his maiden major quarter-final in Melbourne. For the Serbian, victory in Adelaide laid the foundations for his run to a 10th Australian Open crown later that month, a triumph which drew him level with Rafael Nadal on 22 Grand Slam titles.

3) Miami SF, Sinner d Alcaraz 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2
One of the most intriguing Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalries of 2023 arguably hit its high point at March’s Miami Open presented by Itau, where Jannik Sinner notched a statement semi-final triumph against defending champion Carlos Alcaraz.

Presented with the chance to avenge his semi-final loss to Alcaraz in Indian Wells from two weeks prior, Sinner prevailed in a match of the highest quality to end Alcaraz’s reign as World No. 1. The Italian led early in all three sets but had to save two break points at 3-4 in the second set to stall Alcaraz’s charge towards a straight-sets victory, before he put his foot down to storm past the physically struggling Spaniard in the decider.

The highlight of a stunning three-hour, two-minute spectacle was an all-court exchange at 4-2 in the opening set. Sinner emerged victorious in a contender for point of the year, one that showcased the breathtaking defensive and counter-punching skills of two of the ATP Tour’s brightest young starts.

“It means a lot. We both played a very, very high level of tennis again. I just tried my best,” said Sinner after his win. “In the third set I saw him struggle a little bit for a couple of games, so I tried to push there… We both tried to play very aggressive tennis and today it went my way, so I’m very happy.”

2) Nitto ATP Finals RR, Sinner d Djokovic 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-6(2)
Sinner attributed being ‘really brave’ at key moments as the all-important factor as he snapped Djokovic’s six-match winning-streak at the Nitto ATP Finals in a group-stage thriller in November in Turin. Perhaps more significantly for the home favourite, it was his first victory against the World No. 1 in four Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings.

“It means a lot to me,” said Sinner, who delivered a serving performance to match the Serbian and crushed the ball with his trademark power from the baseline throughout the three-hour, nine-minute encounter. “When you win against the World No. 1, who has won 24 Grand Slams, it’s obviously in the top [of my career results] … I felt like it was a really tactical match and I managed to win, so I’m very happy.”

Predictably, Sinner’s milestone win against Djokovic, which he sealed in front of a raucous home crowd, did not come easy. The Serbian had reclaimed a break immediately at 2-4 in the decider before forcing the Italian to hold his nerve in a third-set tie-break. The 22-year-old Sinner did just that, reeling off the first five points to assume control before clinching a match in which the players sent down 35 aces combined.

1) Cincinnati F, Djokovic d Alcaraz 5-7, 7-6(7), 7-6(4)
An instant classic played out by the ATP Tour’s best two players in 2023, Djokovic and Alcaraz’s Western & Southern Open clash will live long in the memory. Djokovic saved championship point before prevailing in a three-hour, 49-minute epic, one he later described as “one of the toughest matches I’ve ever played in my life”, and which was the longest best-of-three final in ATP Tour history (since 1990).

With Djokovic struggling physically in the Cincinnati heat, Alcaraz seemed set to charge to victory when he led by a set and a break at the ATP Masters 1000. Yet the 36-year-old Djokovic raised his level in a staggering display of physical resilience and mental fortitude, saving a championship point at 5/6 in the second-set tie-break before overhauling his younger opponent to earn a record-extending 39th Masters 1000 crown.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Djokovic afterwards. “From the beginning until the end we’ve both been through so much. So many ups and downs, highs and lows, incredible points, poor games, heat strokes, coming back. Just overall, one of the toughest and most exciting matches I was ever part of and these are the kinds of moments and matches that I continue to work for day in day out.”

Alcaraz, who played his own significant part in one of the ATP Tour’s all-time great finals, was able to appreciate the occasion, even in defeat: ”It’s amazing playing against you, sharing the court with you, learning from you,” Alcaraz told his opponent during the trophy ceremony. “This match was really close, but I learned a lot from a champion like you.”

What makes Novak Djokovic tick?

Few people are better equipped to answer that question than leading tennis journalist Jon Wertheim and the acclaimed CBS news broadcast programme known for its signature stopwatch, 60 MINUTES.

Wertheim, who in January 2020 profiled Rafael Nadal for the American show, spent three days on the ground in Belgrade in early November. Djokovic, who recently claimed ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by Pepperstone honours for a recording-extending eighth time at the age of 36, was first profiled on 60 MINUTES in 2011.

“That was 12 years and 20 majors ago,” Wertheim said. “We had already done the back story, so we approached this piece with the assumption that people already knew him. This time we really wanted to get into his mind. You’re not going to learn about his childhood like you did in the first one. We’re focused on the present and the future.”

Novak Djokovic is considered the greatest men’s tennis player of all time. 60 Minutes reports, Sunday. https://t.co/mEN4CWeXMW pic.twitter.com/YQCbV9VwNa

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) December 9, 2023

Djokovic spent many hours with Wertheim and the crew in Belgrade just three days after winning the Rolex Paris Masters and before leaving for Turin, where he would win a record-setting seventh Nitto ATP Finals crown.

“In the many times I’ve interviewed him I’ve never had long conversations like this,” Wertheim said. “I think it was meaningful to him and it was different, spending a whole day with him. It wasn’t done in a locker room or some hotel room. I got the feeling that he was happy to show off where he is from. He was very hospitable and a gracious host.

“He’s like no other athlete. He doesn’t think like any other athlete I’ve been around; he doesn’t conduct himself like any other athlete. He’s an incredible athlete physically, but with Novak you realise how mental tennis is. He’s been in so many tight matches, so many finals, played in front of booing crowds. You realise how much success builds success and confidence builds confidence.

“There’s a lot of self-belief when you’ve come through all that to win 24 majors and the other guy across the net is still looking for his first.”

Wertheim asked Djokovic if the current version of himself would beat the Novak Djokovic of 2011, a year in which he won three majors, five ATP Masters 1000s and 10 titles in all.

“He said that at 36 he would beat the 24-year-old Novak of 2011. He might be able to run faster, but experience and the confidence of having come through so many situations would enable him to beat the player who was 12 years younger.”

After Djokovic hoisted seven trophies this season, including three majors, two Masters 1000s and the Nitto ATP Finals crown, the 98-time tour-level titlist told Wertheim that retirement was nowhere in his immediate plans.

“He said something to the effect of, ‘When the young guys start kicking my butt it will be time to reassess, but that’s not happening yet.”

The story airs Sunday, December 10 at 7:30 PM, ET/PT after the football game on CBS. It will also stream on Paramount+.

Nick Kyrgios will not compete in the 2024 Australian Open.

The 28-year-old was not on the entry list for the season’s first major. He confirmed on Friday that he will not play his home Slam for the second consecutive year.

The only match Kyrgios played in 2023 came in Stuttgart, where he lost in straight sets to Wu Yibing.

“This is a very disappointing time for me, but I won’t be able to compete at the 2024 Australian Open,” Kyrgios said on a social media platform.

“Obviously, heartbreaking. I’ve had so many amazing memories there, and I just want to really get back to playing at the top of my game and doing it right, and I need a little more time.”

In 2022, the Australian enjoyed one of the best seasons of his career. Kyrgios reached the Wimbledon final and won the Australian Open doubles title with close friend Thanasi Kokkinakis. His journey through the year was documented on Netflix’s Break Point.

ATPTour.com highlights five players who tasted success on the ATP Challenger Tour this season before shining at one of the four majors.

Christopher Eubanks
Coming into the season, the American was ranked outside the Top 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings with just one major main-draw win. Closing 2022 by winning 11 of his final 14 Challenger-level matches was a sign of things to come for Eubanks. A quarter-final appearance at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Miami led Eubanks to his Top 100 debut.

During a South Korean Challenger swing across April and May, Eubanks reached two quarter-finals and a semi-final. The former Georgia Tech University standout started his grass season at the Surbiton Challenger, suffering a second-round exit. Then his life changed.

The 27-year-old collected his maiden ATP Tour level title in Mallorca and completed a dream run to the Wimbledon quarter-finals. En route to the last eight at the All England Club, Eubanks ousted 15th seed Cameron Norrie and fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

“My grass-court season got off to a bit of a rough start at the Surbiton Challenger. I began to question whether or not I could be good on the surface. I didn’t think that I could,” Eubanks said in July. “But my coach, Ruan Roelofse, and I, we put in a lot of work on the grass to try and understand the footing and the shots and everything that I would need to have in order to be successful.”

Dominic Stricker
Making Swiss tennis history isn’t easy. After all, 20-time major champion Roger Federer and former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka have etched their names into almost every record book for their home country. But the lefty Stricker managed to carve out a niche place in the record books by winning the Prague Challenger in May and become the only Swiss player to win five Challenger titles before his 21st birthday.

Stricker, who also won the Rovereto Challenger in February, enjoyed a breakthrough at the US Open, where he advanced through qualifying en route to a fourth-round appearance. In the second round, Stricker stunned Tsitsipas after firing 78 winners in a five-set thriller that lasted four hours, 10 minutes.

“I was down 3-5 and then I came back in the fourth set. I don’t know how, but I did it somehow and then I kept playing very high level tennis. I am a bit speechless,” Stricker said at the time.

His deep run at Flushing Meadows propelled him into the Top 100 for the first time on 11 September. The 21-year-old became the youngest Swiss to reach the milestone since 20-year-old Wawrinka did so in 2005.

Dominic Stricker triumphs at the Challenger 75 event in Rovereto, Italy.” />
^{Dominic Stricker celebrates winning the Rovereto Challenger. Credit: Felice Calabro}
Rinky Hijikata
The 22-year-old Australian partnered countryman Jason Kubler for the first time at their home Slam. The result? A fairytale run to their first Grand Slam title.

“I could never have imagined this, it is just unreal,” Hijikata said.

The dream start to the year continued for Hijikata, who did not drop a set en route to winning the Burnie Challenger, just eight days after winning the Australian Open doubles crown.

A wild card into the US Open, Hijikata reached the fourth round (l. Tiafoe), to earn his Top 100 debut. After the season’s final major, the former University of North Carolina star reached the Cary Challenger final and advanced to the last four at the Playford and Sydney Challengers.

“The Challenger Tour has been great for me. There’s so many quality players on the Challenger Tour and I honestly feel like the level isn’t too different between Challengers and ATP Tour events,” Hijikata said. “To make that transition is very important, to play Challengers and put yourself week in and week out against some quality players, just being able to back up good weeks week after week is hard to do and important.”

Sebastian Ofner
Not many players were more successful on the ATP Challenger Tour in the first half of the year than Ofner. The 27-year-old Austrian reached four Challenger finals before his career-best moment at Roland Garros.

Ofner qualified for the clay-court major and showed no signs of slowing down. After racing past Maxime Cressy and Sebastian Korda, Ofner survived his second career five-setter, against Fabio Fognini, before falling to fifth seed Tsitsipas in the fourth round.

Following his deep run in Paris, Ofner jumped 37 spots in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings to mark his Top 100 debut. He then reached the Ilkley Challenger final in June and won his fourth Challenger title in July in Salzburg. Ofner finished the season at a career-high No. 43.

Matteo Arnaldi
The 22-year-old was the only Italian to win a trio of ATP Challenger Tour titles in 2023, with triumphs in Tenerife, Murcia and Heilbronn. Arnaldi earned his first Top 10 victory by defeating World No. 4 Casper Ruud in Madrid, where he also secured his Top 100 breakthrough.

In New York, Arnaldi’s career hit new heights. The Sanremo native advanced to the fourth round, having defeated 16th seed Norrie along the way to an Arthur Ashe Stadium match against top seed Carlos Alcaraz, who defeated Arnaldi in straight sets.

After starting the season at No. 134, Arnaldi boasted a 16-5 Challenger-match record and hit a career-high No. 41 in October.

There’s nothing quite like a good rebound, a good revival. Our Comeback Player of the Year nominees in the 2023 ATP Awards — Dominik Koepfer, Gael Monfils, Jan-Lennard Struff and Alexander Zverev — will attest to that. All four players found a way to overcome injury and battle back toward the top of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in 2023.

Nominees for Comeback Player of the Year are determined by an International Tennis Writers’ Association (ITWA) vote. The winner is selected by players from the shortlist.

Stay tuned: ATP Awards winners will be announced during Awards Week, starting Monday, 11 December.

Dominik Koepfer

Injuries are never easy — especially when the issue at hand is never fully diagnosed.

That’s been the case for Dominik Koepfer the last few years. After reaching a career-high No. 50 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in 2021, the German began to experience a nagging discomfort in his left arm, especially when serving. Despite closing out that year with an impressive Round of 16 showing at the Rolex Paris Masters, where he defeated Andy Murray and Felix Auger-Aliassime in succession, the pain lingered and he was forced to take time off.

An MRI, repeated doctor visits, and painkillers did nothing for the former Tulane All-American, and his ranking plummeted as low as No. 262 earlier this year.

“No doctor really knows what it is,” said Koepfer. “It’s probably instability in my shoulder and just maybe some nerve stuff, too, that’s a little stuck. Nothing really helped. I’ve literally tried everything I could. There was no surgery you could do because if there’s no diagnosis, really, you can’t really do anything to fix it.”

Credit the dogged Koepfer, 29, with finding a way to play through the pain. Beginning with the Challenger title at the Mexico City Open in March, he steadily climbed his way back up the rankings. He would reach five ATP Challenger Tour finals altogether in 2023, earn an opening-round shot against defending champ Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open, and finish the year at No. 77.

Dominik Koepfer” />
Dominik Koepfer in Winston-Salem. Photo: Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Gael Monfils

There was ample reason for the emotion in Stockholm, where tour vet Gael Monfils became the oldest BNP Paribas Nordic Open champion in tournament history, a 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-3 winner over surprise finalist Pavel Kotov.

The ever-athletic Frenchman has experienced more than his fair share of physical setbacks since turning pro nearly two decades ago. The 2023 campaign was no exception. Monfils struggled with injuries in the first half of the season, and arrived in Sweden at No. 140 Pepperstone ATP Rankings. His trophy run was a testament to his longevity, his career-long dedication to the sport. After all, it was La Monf’s second Stockholm title, having won the ATP 250 event back in 2011. That 12-year gap between titles is the biggest in history. He became just the fourth player age 37 or above to win an ATP Tour title since 1990, joining Roger Federer, Ivo Karlovic and Feliciano Lopez.

Monfils dedicated the win to his mother, Sylvette; wife, WTA star Elina Svitolina; and baby daughter, Skaï.

“It’s the first time I’ve won a title as a father. She is very special,” said Monfils, who also notched Top 25 wins over Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alex de Minaur, Cameron Norrie, Alexander Bublik and Adrian Mannarino in 2023.

Gael Monfils” />
Gael Monfils in Stockholm. Photo: Alexander Scheuber/BNP Paribas Nordic Open

Jan-Lennard Struff

Jan-Lennard Struff, 33, was in the midst of a career year, buoyed by runner-up finishes at the Mutua Madrid Open (where as a lucky loser he upended Stefanos Tsitsipas and pushed Carlos Alcaraz in a three-set final) and in Stuttgart. But after a No. 167-to-No. 21 catapult, the German was forced to shut it down due to a hip injury.

“It was a great year so far. I couldn’t have expected this, going this fast up to the Top 30 from outside the Top 150,” he said. “It was crazy how fast it went. It was an amazing year, so it was very hard to accept.”

The right-hander did not pick up a racquet for seven weeks while rehabbing, missing three months in all beginning in late June.

All this made his September return that much more meaningful, a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 win over Chile’s Cristian Garin in Zhuhai in his first match back. Last month, Struff powered through to his third semi-final of 2023 in Sofia, very much back on track.

Jan-Lennard Struff” />
Jan-Lennard Struff in Madrid. Photo: Getty Images

Alexander Zverev

The images from Paris are still fresh, Alexander Zverev crumpled on the terre battue, screaming in pain after rolling his ankle in the second set of his semi-final match against Rafael Nadal. His 2022 Roland Garros — his entire year, for that matter — was over.

Fast forward a year-and-a-half and the German is very much back in business, comfortably inside the Top 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Success was not immediate. In fact, Zverev would win just three of his first nine matches in 2023. But not only would he return to the Roland Garros semi-finals (l. to Casper Ruud), he would capture the 20th and 21st titles of his career in Hamburg and Chengdu, and qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals.

“After the injury last year, my first season back, to be back with the top eight players, to be back in Turin, is an achievement for me,” said Zverev at the year-end showdown, where he registered two of his four Top 10 wins on the year over Carlos Alcaraz and Andrey Rublev.

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Alexander Zverev at the Nitto ATP Finals. Photo: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour

Kazakhstan’s Beibit Zhukayev first picked up a tennis racquet on a family vacation at age eight. A native of Aktau, population roughly 180,000, Zhukayev has defied odds to become a rising star on the ATP Challenger Tour.

“I never thought I’d become a professional player while practising in Aktau. It was for fun, we never had tennis coaches there or players,” Zhukayev told ATPTour.com. “I’m kind of like a superstar in that city. A lot of people tell me, ‘We never thought that someone would be that high in the rankings!’”

Zhukayev, who moved to Almaty in 2013, takes pride in being born and raised in Kazakhstan. “I’m real Kazakh,” he said. At No. 189 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, the 23-year-old hopes to see more tennis players emerge from his home country.

“Our tennis society and level is going up. I see a lot more children that are starting to play tennis and are more interested in the sport,” said Zhukayev, who is the second-highest ranked Kazakh, behind World No. 32 Alexander Bublik. “I believe in five, 10 years we will have more players competing.”

If it were not for a family vacation to Türkiye, who knows if Zhukayev would be where he is today. Alongside his uncle at a resort in 2008, Zhukayev tried tennis and instantly fell in love. He also quickly caught on to a strategy.

“I made him run a lot. I loved playing corner to corner and made people run for the ball,” Zhukayev said. “My uncle fell down and he had a small injury on his knee. I still remember that he had a lot of blood on his knee and I was so sorry to him.”

A breakthrough moment for Zhukayev came in May at the Little Rock Challenger, where he advanced through qualifying en route to his first final at that level. Zhukayev went one step further in November, triumphing at the Jonathan Fried Pro Challenger in Charlottesville, Virginia. But all did not look so well at the start of the week, when Zhukayev fended off five match points to escape Thai-Son Kwiatkowski in the first round.

“I thought I was going to lose. I thought I would have another week of practice,” Zhukayev said. “I was kind of thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’ I just said, ‘Let’s just try to win the next point.’ I won it and I’d say, ‘Try to win another one.’ Then when he had three more match points in a game, I just said, ‘Try and win this point and see what happens.’

“The next day I was so sore and my legs were so tired. But I figured it out and started playing better and better every day. It was an incredible week for me.”

Beibit Zhukayev wins his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title in Charlottesville, Virginia.” />
^{Beibit Zhukayev wins the Jonathan Fried Pro Challenger. Credit: Al Hoover}
Zhukayev earned his maiden ATP Tour main-draw victory this year in Shanghai, where he downed Italian Stefano Napolitano. Despite the 6’5” Zhukayev hammering 20 aces in the second round against Karen Khachanov, he suffered a three-set defeat in what was his first tournament at the ATP Masters 1000 level.

With his career-best season now in the rear-view mirror, the offseason will perhaps provide some downtime for Zhukayev to enjoy his hobbies: reading, driving and spending time with his family. Zhukayev has two brothers and a twin sister, Nazik, who was born 15 minutes after Beibit.

“I don’t watch any other sports. Sometimes I read political stuff to know what’s happening in the world,” Zhukayev said. “I’m a big fan of cars as well. I enjoy food, I think our Kazakh food is the best in the world.”