Carlos Alcaraz is used to carving up opponents, week-in, week-out, on the tennis courts of the ATP Tour. One of the keys to the Spaniard’s success is his reading of the game, his tactical nous, and his ability to strategically outthink his opponents during rallies.

So how do those skills help the 20-year-old when it comes to chasing victories on a chess board? Alcaraz is a keen chess player, whose grandfather introduced him to the game when he was a young boy. His passion for it has endured until today.

“It helps me be mentally quicker, to observe moves, see the move you want to make, strategy… concentrating all the time,” said Alcaraz in an interview with Marca. “In chess, like in tennis, if you take your eye off the ball for a minute you can lose the match. In that regard, they are pretty similar disciplines. It helps me because you are focused, your mind is working.”

Fans of tennis and chess alike now have the chance to test Alcaraz’s skills with bishop and pawn in hand. The No. 2 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and winner of 12 ATP Tour titles, including two Grand Slams, has been introduced as a Chess.com bot that any user can challenge virtually on the platform.

♟️👀😏🤝🏻 https://t.co/1kuObxBjOT

— Carlos Alcaraz (@carlosalcaraz) November 22, 2023

It will be no easy game, though. The bot has all the weapons in Alcaraz’s repertoire, reflecting his real-life movements on a chess board. He will likely be hard to shake off.

Alcaraz has been practising recently, too. A few weeks ago, he sat on a public terrace at Plaza de las Flores in his hometown of Murcia to play members of the city’s Thader Chess Club. Passers-by were surprised to see the tennis player competing, this time without a racquet.

The ATP and Tennis Data Innovations (TDI) will deliver unprecedented insights at the 2023 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM. Using state-of-the-art tracking metrics, the insights will assess the physical capacity required to compete at the highest professional level of our sport. The Physicality Index (PI) will allow fans and media to objectively evaluate and quantify the physical outputs of two players competing against each other at the 21-and-under event.

It is important to understand that the Physicality Index (PI) is NOT a direct measurement of the athletes overall tactical performance. It is only reflective of the physical work being produced by each athlete during the match.

At the 2021 Next Gen ATP Finals, Carlos Alcaraz won all five of his matches, spending less than 6.5 hours on court, and only dropping one set in the entire event. From a PI perspective, he worked harder than his opponents in four of the five matches, and his highest match physicality never reached above a 3.4 in the tournament. This did not mean he was not performing at a very high level, but rather indicated that he was able to execute tactically while being very efficient with how much energy he was spending on court.

A similar pattern is visible in the NBA. All-Stars tend to have a lower physicality index ranking because of how efficient they are within different parts of the game. They know when to push and how to save energy while still being on the court, contributing to the overall success of the team.

Tennis champions are some of the most physically fit athletes in the world and are asked to move around the court, executing shots from compromising positions, while staying balanced over multiple hours. The highest levels of tennis set themselves apart from other sports due to the combination of skill and athleticism rarely seen in other sports.

So what are the actual physical demands required to win the Next Gen ATP Finals? With the emergence of this performance tracking data, the answer is clear. We must first crack the code of the Physicality Index, breaking it down into four key metrics, to better understand how each metric affects the overall physicality of each match.

The first two metrics, distance and workload, help establish an overall volume of work. The volume metrics define how much overall work the athlete has to do in the time frame being evaluated. By using two different volume metrics—total distance and workload—we’ll ensure that different biological systems affected by overall workload are accounted for. High Speed Distance and Explosive Movements make up our Intensity metric, which measure how much of the work being done is performed at high levels of exertion, that place the body under extreme stress levels.

Distance: Overall volume of work [total ground covered] an athlete must undertake in order to excel at the highest levels of the sport.
Work Load: Total amount of weighted accelerations and decelerations the athlete has performed at different intensities.
High Speed Distance: Total distance covered at the Top 3 per cent of speeds observed in professional tennis.
Explosive Movements: High intensity changes of direction (highly-demanding acceleration or deceleration).
Intensity: High Speed Movements and Explosive Movements are used to calculate: Intensity.

The 2023 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM will award a tournament-record $2 million in prize money at the 21-and-under event, which will be played in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 28 November-2 December.

If the champion at this year’s tournament lifts the trophy with a perfect record, he will earn $514,000, an increase over the previous record.

Three matches at this year’s Next Gen ATP Finals will be worth more than $100,000. Each semi-final victory will be worth $113,500 and the championship match will yield the winner $153,000. The participation fee for each player at the event is $150,000.

Prize Money 2023

Frenchman Arthur Fils and American Alex Michelsen had the honour Friday of opening practice on stadium court at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM, the first ATP-sanctioned event ever held in Saudi Arabia.

Fils and Michelsen are the first two players to arrive for the season-ending 21-and-under event, which will be played at the King Abdullah Sports City from 28 November to 2 December.

“It’s the first time we have practicsed together, so it was very nice and the court is very nice,” said World No. 36 Fils. “The atmosphere during matches is going to be very good and we’re all looking forward to playing the event.

“It’s going to be interesting playing with some new rules, like playing to four games.”

Alex Michelsen with Arthur Fils.” /> 

As he prepares for the tournament, Michelsen has spent a very different Thanksgiving holiday than he did 12 months ago.

“Last year I was at my grandparents’ house in Orange Country, California and I was around 600 in the world, so this was not on the radar,” said the 19-year-old, who is now at a career-high No. 94 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. “A lot has changed in a year.

“It was fun having the first hit with Arthur, who is a really good guy. The court plays nicely, the sound and lights are good and the stadium is sick. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Arthur Fils practising Friday in Jeddah.” />

Fils, 19, who was the first player to arrive in Jeddah, says that he and his team have enjoyed the early days of their visit.

“The hotel and food is very nice and everybody has been very kind to me and the team. We’re going to visit the city tomorrow.”

Michelsen added: “We’ve been treated well; it’s been nothing but a good experience so far.”

Sky has agreed new five-year partnerships with both ATP Media, the broadcast arm of the ATP, and WTA Ventures, the commercial arm of the WTA, which will see over 80 tournaments made up of 4000 matches available on Sky Sports, NOW and WOW.

Both Tours will be available for fans year-round with Sky having secured rights exclusively in the U.K. and Ireland, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as non-exclusive rights in Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and South Tyrol.

The two Tours will showcase the world’s top players such as World No. 1s Iga Swiatek and Novak Djokovic, alongside Rafael Nadal, Aryna Sabalenka, Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev and the returning Naomi Osaka as well as the ‘new era’ of tennis stars including Carlos Alcaraz, Coco Gauff, Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu, competing at all levels including at combined Masters 1000 events taking place in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome, and Cincinnati, and both the Nitto ATP Finals and WTA Finals. From 2024, Sky Sports will create a new home for tennis all year round, delivering the live action from the six continents direct to fans.

Sky Sports coverage will be led by presenter Gigi Salmon, alongside Tim Henman and Laura Robson who will offer their expert analysis and insights across the two Tours, with Jonathan
Overend on the match commentary. The Sky Sports team will also be joined by additional talent and co-commentators at various events across the season.

Stephen van Rooyen, CEO Sky UK & Ireland and Group CCO, said: “This is a fantastic time to see the ATP and WTA Tours on Sky Sports across our markets, as tennis enters a new era with fresh and exciting talent making their way to the top of the sport. We are committed to bringing the two Tours together to elevate both male and female stars, and deliver world-class coverage of the 80 events across 48 weeks of the year; creating a brand-new home for tennis fans.”

Mark Webster, CEO of ATP Media, said: “We are extremely excited by the commitment we are seeing from Sky to both men’s and women’s tennis. ATP Media prides itself on producing and delivering the huge amount of world class content generated on the ATP Tour and the three Sky entities have shown themselves to be the perfect partners to provide this content to our many tennis fans. We share many of the same values, striving for innovation and excellence, and we hope this is just the start of an amazing new chapter for tennis in these Sky markets.”

Marina Storti, CEO of WTA Ventures, said: “This partnership is brilliant news for tennis fans who can look forward to more exciting action from the Hologic WTA Tour in 2024 and beyond with a strengthened calendar which will elevate the sport even further. Sky Sports are renowned for championing world-class sport, and we know that they will create a fantastic new platform to showcase our outstanding WTA and ATP athletes in one place. The future is bright for women’s sport and there is much more growth to come.”

Live tennis will be available from next year on Sky Sports, and non-Sky subscribers can access the Tours via a NOW Sports Monthly membership, with selected highlights available on demand. For further access, fans will also be able to follow their favourite players and gain deeper insights from both Tours via Sky Sports News, the Sky Sports app, on SkySports.com and via Sky Sports social channels.