Don’t expect Stefanos Tsitsipas to retreat into his shell after beginning his 2023 Turin campaign with a straight-sets loss to Jannik Sinner.

As the Greek notes, a key benefit of the tournament’s round-robin format is that it allows players to stay alive even in defeat. Case in point is 2019, when Tsitsipas dropped a round-robin match to Rafael Nadal but went on to claim the title.

“That’s the beauty of Nitto ATP Finals; it’s not over until it’s really over,” the World No. 6 said. “You can always re-bounce and you can always come back. It’s a good format. It allows for great competition and for some good comebacks that we don’t really see in the sport because our tour is based on knockout rounds, a single opportunity in every tournament.”

With his chances still alive of capturing a second Nitto ATP Finals title, Tsitsipas says that he will play freely and aggressively.

“I enjoy playing in fast surfaces much more now than I did years ago,” he said. “I think my tennis suits fast surfaces way more than it did slower. My shots are big. I can hit big shots.

“I see this tournament for me also as an opportunity for me to grow my game through maybe bigger risks. Why not? It’s a great tournament and I really want to do well here.”

Tsitsipas paid tribute to Sinner’s impressive serving after the Italian dropped just 10 points en route to a 6-4, 6-4 win. “He definitely has improved his serve, and he showed it today on the court,” he said.

“There wasn’t much I could do. I was trying to guess sometimes. He serves really close to the lines, to the corners.

“I’m not the Elastic Girl from the superheroes to be behind these balls. I tried my best, and he played a very good quality match from his side.”

The starpower at the Nitto ATP Finals is in full effect beyond just the tennis court.

Football star Sami Khedira visited the Pala Alpitour on Sunday and met with Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev by the practice court at the tournament’s main venue. Khedira was a central midfielder whose teams included Juventus, which is based in Turin.

 

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Alcaraz is competing in the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time and leads the Red Group as the second seed. The Spaniard qualified for the season finale last year, but was unable to play due to injury.

Zverev is a two-time Nitto ATP Finals champion appearing for the first time since 2021.

Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek are off the mark at the Nitto ATP Finals.

Competing together in Turin for the second time, the top-seeded duo notched its first match win at the prestigious season finale by downing Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 6-4, 6-2 on Sunday at the Pala Alpitour.

The opening game of the 2023 Nitto ATP Finals featured a stunning back-and-forth point at 30/30, which included a behind-the-back reaction half-volley from Molteni before Dodig powered a forehand winner. That outcome proved to be a sign of things to come, as Dodig and Krajicek held firm in a series of important moments to clinch a 77-minute victory in Green Group.

“It was very important. I think we played a great match today,” Dodig told ATPTour.com. “To win 6-4, 6-2 is a great start for us. It’s still the group stage and it’s the first match, but it was very nice to play today in a full stadium. We had a good time, great fun with a good crowd, so great to be back in Turin and great to start with a win.”

The Croatian-American pair won three deciding points in the first set, including in the opening two games of the match, to move ahead inside the Pala Alpitour. They then broke their seventh-seeded opponents Gonzalez and Molteni twice in the second set to avenge their defeat in their only previous Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with the Argentines in the Cincinnati semi-finals in August.

Currently leading the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, Dodig and Krajicek are one of five teams competing at the Nitto ATP Finals that could end the year as the Tour’s top team. Sunday’s win was a confidence-boosting start to Dodig and Krajicek’s campaign in Turin, where they lost all three of their group-stage clashes in Match Tie-breaks in 2022.

“Last year we lost three matches in difficult situations,” said Dodig. “This year we’ve come better prepared. Through the year we have played consistently and are the best team, for now. There is more confidence, and it’s all about the big points and how you play them. We’re really happy about today. Those couple of big points, we played well.”

Krajicek is competing at the Nitto ATP Finals for the second time this year. Dodig is making his ninth appearance at the season finale, where he reached the championship match in 2014 alongside Marcelo Melo.

This year’s doubles field at the Nitto ATP Finals features a mix of established teams and breakthrough stars. Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek are leading the way as the top seeds.

“It feels great to come back here, for us a second time as a team together. I’m really enjoying it. Happy that we had a great season. And to finish it here, it’s always the best thing,” Dodig said. “That’s why we fight through the year, to play this one. And hopefully this time we can have a good run.

“Last year, we had great matches. We lost all the matches in the [Match] Tie-break. Hopefully this time, we can do it better. But all in all, great season. Happy to be back.”

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Dodig and Krajicek won this year’s Roland Garros title and triumphed on four other occasions: at Rotterdam, Monte-Carlo, Queen’s Club and Beijing. But the Croatian-American duo will face stern tests in every match of Green Group action, with all teams in Turin champions in their own right.

First up for Dodig and Krajicek will be Argentines Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni on Sunday. The Argentines are both debuting at the Nitto ATP Finals at age 40 and 35, respectively.

“I’m very, very happy. We are enjoying the week, enjoying every practice and tomorrow the match. It’s like a dream come true,” Molteni said. “We always see this tournament, big players from all around the world — and from Argentina as well — playing this tournament. So now we are here playing and we are very happy and very proud that we made it to qualify this year.”

Defending champions Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury are back in the field, competing in the season finale for the fifth consecutive year. In the middle of the season, their Turin hopes seemed in doubt. But they returned to form by winning the US Open for the third straight year.

“It’s amazing to defend the title here, or to try to defend the title, I should say. But I think it’s even more special, because we probably were on the outside looking in for six months of this year,” Ram said. “So the fact that we really basically qualified in the last six months, I think is something that we’re pretty proud of. We didn’t didn’t have a great start to the year, but we really came on strong to get here in the end.”

In the end, this is the event the players wait for all season. Santiago Gonzalez, who will be making his debut alongside Edouard Roger-Vasselin, is excited to get started.

“It was the only tournament left in my bucket list to play. So I’m very happy to do it this year after an amazing year,” Gonzalez said. “At the end of the day we are playing the best teams in the world, so we can win or lose any match. So we will try our best on court.”