As recently as January, Daniil Medvedev was the best-kept secret in tennis. Little fuss was made when he reached the final in Brisbane in the opening week of the season, taking out Andy Murray along the way. And not too many people took notice when, two weeks later on a balmy night in Melbourne, the Russian pushed Novak Djokovic to four hard sets in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

With Medvedev now a debutant at next week’s Nitto ATP Finals, perhaps we all should have been more alert to his talents at the start of the season. And noted just how much work Djokovic, a supreme baseliner, was having to do to beat his young challenger. Medvedev came close to matching Djokovic’s machine-like qualities.

Back in January, Medvedev seemed like just another promising member of the chasing pack. Stefanos Tsitsipas, with his victory over Roger Federer at the Australian Open, appeared to be the most significant name to watch from the next generation. For years, the big question in men’s tennis has been: who is going to emerge to get in among the Big Three of Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic? By the end of the US Open in early September, it looked like we had our answer: the 6’6” Muscovite with outstanding movement who is a nightmare to put away.

Even before Medvedev played his first match of the US Open, he was no longer the secret he had been in January. On a roll in the weeks after Wimbledon, he reached three consecutive finals in Washington, D.C., Montreal and Cincinnati, winning the last of those for his first ATP Masters 1000 title. By reaching his first Grand Slam final at the US Open, he became only the third man in the Open Era, after Ivan Lendl and Andre Agassi, to feature in the final of those four tournaments in the same season.

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Medvedev gave Nadal an almighty fright in New York, coming from two sets down to take the match to a fifth set. He backed that up by winning the St. Petersburg title in late September, in what was his fifth final from five tournaments. Then, in Shanghai in October, Medvedev extended that run to six finals in six consecutive tournaments, and won his second ATP Masters 1000 title.

The evidence was mounting up that, after playing a very heavy schedule, this was the player coming through from the peloton to take on the leaders. “It’s amazing,” Medvedev said of becoming the first man after the Big Three to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals. “That shows what a great year I’m having, that the work I’ve been doing is paying off. But I don’t want to stop.”

On his run to the US Open final, Medvedev established himself as something of a character. First, he goaded the crowds in the early rounds by thanking them for booing him, saying it gave him extra energy. Flushing Meadows can be a difficult audience to please, but there was a remarkably swift transformation before the fortnight was out. By then, New York had taken to him. Medvedev employed his dry Russian humour, combined with some admirable humility, to win the crowds over.

When a montage of Nadal’s 19 Grand Slam triumphs was played on the big screen after the final, Medvedev could not help wondering what would have happened if he had pulled off an amazing comeback victory. “When I was looking on the screen and they were showing No. 1, No. 2… No. 19, I was like, ‘if I would win, what would they show?’” he said before a suitably charmed Arthur Ashe Stadium.

During the US Open, Medvedev looked back at his journey towards the top. “I will not say that I’m a kind person or a good person. I can only say I’m a really calm person in life. I actually have no idea why the demons go out when I play tennis. Especially when I was a junior, I had a lot of problems with my attitude. I was not getting defaulted, but to have a game penalty was easy,” he said.

“I was working hard because every time I do something wrong on the court, I’m sitting with myself thinking: ‘I’m not like this in normal life. Why does it happen? I don’t want it to happen like this.’ I want to be a better person than I was a few days [at the US Open]. To be honest, my wife helps me a lot. I was sitting after these matches and I was like: ‘I don’t want to lose these matches because I get crazy or because I lose some concentration because of the fans’.”

It is not that Medvedev lacks brains. An avid reader and chess player, he attended an academic school specialising in maths and physics before concentrating on becoming a tennis player. The fondness for working things out comes through in his tennis, as he showed against Nadal. He looks like a natural problem solver on court, with a willingness to change his game if the situation demands it.

Underpinning Medvedev’s results are some very modern attributes. He moves exceptionally well for a tall man and his wingspan allows him to chase down balls and deliver his hard, flat groundstrokes with relentless accuracy.

In fact, Medvedev had thought it was only a matter of time before he broke through. “Before [this year’s US Open] my best Slam result was the fourth round. I felt like it’s just so tough to win a five-set match. I knew I was going the right way, I just had to fight for every set, for every point,” he said. “I think it’s just experience because I lost two really tough five-setters [this year] – at Roland Garros, leading two sets to love, having a break in the fifth, and at Wimbledon, with a break in the fifth. I lost them, but it’s a great experience to know how to not let this happen again.”

Next week at the Nitto ATP Finals, Medvedev has the opportunity to win his biggest title yet. But it should be remembered that getting to the top is one thing and staying there is another – the phenomenal success of Nadal, Djokovic and Federer has made it look way easier than it is in reality. Medvedev’s task now is to show that he has the application to take the extra steps and to win when the pressure is at its greatest. The signs are that he is becoming better equipped to do so.

London has turned on a spectacular, crisp morning under sunny skies for a 9.30am ferry ride for this year’s singles field journeying together to The O2.

Top seeds Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic led all eight Nitto ATP Finals competitors on a ride to The O2, where the players will participate in media day and practice ahead of Sunday’s start of the season finale.

Nadal and Djokovic will battle for the year-end No. 1 ATP Ranking, while Roger Federer will chase a record-extending seventh title at the world’s biggest indoor tennis tournament.

This year’s event features four players 23 and under: defending champion Alexander Zverev (22), and three players making their debuts, Daniil Medvedev (23), Stefanos Tsitsipas (21) and Matteo Berrettini (23). Additionally, Dominic Thiem will compete for the fourth consecutive year.

Fans of men’s professional tennis can dive deeper than ever before into the ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour following the release of the ATP’s new official mobile app.

Developed in partnership with Infosys and available today for IOS and Android devices, ‘ATP Tour’ delivers official live scores, stats, news and video and a personalised feed featuring fans’ favourite players and tournaments.

Additionally, through customised notifications, fans will be alerted when their players begin or complete a match and immediately when fresh news and video content about their favourite players has been published. The app has been designed with the support of the London-based design arm of Infosys, Brilliant Basics.

Chris Kermode, ATP Executive Chairman & President, said: “We’re delighted to announce the launch of the new ATP Tour app. The app will enable tennis fans worldwide to follow the Tour and their favourite players more closely than ever before as we continue to leverage technology to increase engagement with the Tour’s growing fan base.”

Pravin Rao, Chief Operating Officer, Infosys, said “It’s the 5th year of our relationship with the ATP, and we are very excited to continue this digital transformation journey with them. This new app is built with best-in class principles of digital and design and has been created with fans front and centre. It ties in with our overall commitment to the sport, combining our passion for tennis and technology to reimagine the sport for players and fans alike.”

Highlights of the new app include…

• Official point-by-point live scoring of all ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour tournaments

• A personalised news feed providing immediate access to the latest content on favourite players and tournaments

• Detailed player bio, data and match statistics

• Daily schedules, draws and results from all ATP Tour and Challenger Tour tournaments

• Official ATP Race & Rankings tables

• Latest news, videos and features on the game’s most exciting players and tournaments

• Detailed FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry information

• Full ATP Tour & Challenger Tour calendar

Frances Tiafoe would have preferred his Next Gen ATP Finals meeting with Alex de Minaur happen on Saturday, the day of the 2019 final. But the second-seeded American is still pleased to have a chance at the 2018 runner-up in Milan.

Tiafoe, who failed to make it out of the group stage last year, will try to reach his first Next Gen ATP Finals title match against De Minaur, the top seed who has yet to drop a match at the Allianz Cloud.

The Aussie finished group play unbeaten for the second consecutive year on Thursday, beating Casper Ruud of Norway 4-1, 4-0, 4-2 to make the semi-finals unscathed. The 20-year-old will look to improve to 2-0 against Tiafoe after beating him in four sets at the 2018 US Open.

“I get up for any sort of match any time I step out on court. These conditions make it a bit tougher in the sense that things can change directions really quickly, so I feel like you’ve got to be constantly focused. That’s something that helps me, in a way, to stay in the moment,” De Minaur said. “A lot of work has been done for me to achieve that, but it’s a work in progress and I’m happy to be through to the semi-finals.”

Tiafoe, who goes by the nickname “Big Foe”, came up big during his win-or-go-home match against Mikael Ymer on Thursday, winning 4-2, 4-2, 4-2 against the sixth-seeded Swede.

“I just like being in Milan and playing in Milan. Fans are unbelievable here. They really get behind me. I feel like I play great tennis here. I’m just happy to be in the semis,” Tiafoe said.

In Friday’s second semi-final, Italian wild card Jannik Sinner, the eighth seed, will try to keep the home fans happy and reach the final. The 18-year-old suffered his first loss in Milan on Thursday against Frenchman Ugo Humbert 4-3(5), 3-4(3), 4-2, 4-2, but Sinner had already clinched his semi-final spot before their matchup.

He is the first Italian to make the semi-finals in the tournament’s three-year history. Sinner will meet Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, who secured his semi-final spot with a straight-sets win against Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Thursday.

“I watched his matches,” Kecmanovic said of Sinner. “It’s definitely going to be tough playing against everybody here in the crowd, but I have been playing good. I’m feeling good.”

SCHEDULE, FRIDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2019
ALLIANZ CLOUD COURT start 7:00 pm
[1] A. de Minaur (AUS) vs [2] F. Tiafoe (USA)

Not Before 9:00 pm
[8] [WC] J. Sinner (ITA) vs [5] M. Kecmanovic (SRB)

Although Ugo Humbert didn’t advance out of round-robin play at the Next Gen ATP Finals, he ended his season with another milestone moment on Thursday by defeating Jannik Sinner 4-3(5), 3-4(3), 4-2, 4-2 for his maiden win in Milan.

“I played a great match. It was the last match of the season and I’m happy to have won it against a great player. It was really nice,” Humbert said. “It was a big improvement this year. I played a lot of great matches against good players. I have a lot of experiences, sometimes new ones, and I have a lot of confidence for the next season.”

The Frenchman finished with a 1-2 record in Group B. Sinner had already advanced to the semi-finals after defeating Mikael Ymer on Wednesday for his second win of the week. The 18-year-old Italian will face Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic in Friday’s semi-final lineup.

Read More: Humbert: A Piano Man & #NextGenATP Star

There were no break points in the opening set. But while Sinner and Humbert were even on serve, the Italian struggled to find his range in the baseline exchanges. He saved a set point at 4/6 with a backhand winner, but hit a forehand into the net on the next point to give the Frenchman an early lead.

Humbert earned another break at 2-1 in the second set, but Sinner fought back as the home crowd urged him on. He leaned into a powerful backhand in the next game to break back and won 11 of the last 14 points in the set to level the score.

But while the Italian teenager’s intensity never wavered, he was unable to find the level he showed in his first two matches this week. Sinner hit 30 errors on the night, compared to a tidy 16 for Humbert, with a final backhand pushed long ending the match after one hour and 44 minutes.

Second seed Frances Tiafoe found himself in an identical situation to last year’s Next Gen ATP Finals when he took the court on Thursday against Swede Mikael Ymer, but gave himself a different outcome this time.

The American could have advanced to the semi-finals last year if he’d beaten Jaume Munar, but found himself overwhelmed by the occasion and fell in straight sets. But with a semi-final berth on the line again this year, Tiafoe embraced the pressure and produced a convincing 4-2, 4-2, 4-2 win over Ymer.

“I’m pretty stoked. I needed this. The second half of this season has been rough for me, so every match is an opportunity for me,” Tiafoe said. “I love this event and I want to stay. The more you win, the longer you can stay, so I’m happy to be in the semis.

“I thought I came up with the good points when I needed them… I did a good job, nothing fancy and just stayed locked in.”

Read More: Tiafoe Has Milan Title On His Mind

He joined Jannik Sinner as the two players to advance out of Group B. Tiafoe will face close friend and top seed Alex de Minaur in Friday’s semi-final action. The Aussie prevailed in their lone FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting at last year’s US Open.

“I wanted to see him in the final, but unfortunately it has to be in the semis,” Tiafoe said. “He’s a workhorse. He’s going to get every ball, keep every rally extremely long and make me beat him. I’m ready for the task. We’re going to go after each other, but we’ll still be great friends after.”

Read More: Tiafoe Talks #NextGenATP Friendships

Tiafoe joined Thursday’s trend of dominant runs at the Allianz Cloud, going on a five-game winning streak from 1-2 in the opening set. Consistently landing first serves at more than 200 kph to set up winning forehands, the second seed dictated the tempo of play and kept Ymer pinned behind the baseline in rallies.

The second seed also showed his growth in the most critical moments of the match. Tiafoe didn’t convert his two chances to break last year against Munar, but made good on 50 per cent (3/6) of his opportunities against Ymer. He was equally impressive in deciding points against the Swede, winning four of five on the night.

Tiafoe secured his final break at 2-2 in the third set and raised his arms in triumph after another strong serve wrapped up play after 67 minutes.

The Nitto ATP Finals is the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament, with the top eight players battling it out for the trophy at the season finale. But since they will be playing inside The O2, which of the octet has been most successful indoors in their career?

Three members of the field have previously lifted the Nitto ATP Finals trophy, but nobody competing has won as many matches or at a higher rate than Roger Federer. The Swiss superstar tops the active leaderboard in both categories.

Federer could potentially earn his 300th tour-level victory indoors next week in London. He holds a 296-68 record indoors, having won more than 81 per cent of his matches. No other active player has 150 wins indoors.

The 38-year-old has captured 26 ATP Tour trophies indoors, which ranks fifth in the Open Era. The nearest active player on the list is Andy Murray, who has 15. Federer holds the record for most titles at this event with six.

“You’ve got to be sharp, I think,” Federer said last year. “You’ve got to be explosive. You’ve got to be quick in your decision-making.

“Playing aggressive and playing forward and taking charge of the point is definitely what you should be doing indoors.”

But Djokovic, a five-time champion, is not far behind. The Serbian ranks second in the field in both wins and winning percentage indoors. The 32-year-old owns a 148-40 record, emerging victorious 78.7 per cent of the time.

Federer and Nadal have distanced themselves from the pack in this category, according to the FedEx ATP Performance Zone. Nobody else playing in these Nitto ATP Finals has won more than 70 per cent of their indoor matches. The closest is Daniil Medvedev, who has used his indoor success over the past couple of years to propel him into the Top 5 of the ATP Rankings.

Medvedev, who has won 69 per cent of his indoor matches, has the best record indoors this year with a 12-2 mark. The Russian has lifted three of his seven ATP Tour trophies under a roof, with all of those triumphs coming in the past two years.

World No. 1 Rafael Nadal is right behind Medvedev, having won 68.9 per cent of his indoor matches. The Spaniard, who holds an 82-37 indoor record, will hope to play his best at The O2 as he battles Novak Djokovic for the year-end No. 1 ATP Ranking. Winning two round-robin matches and then advancing to the final would guarantee the lefty accomplishes the feat for the fifth time, tying Djokovic, Federer and Jimmy Connors for second all-time.

Stefanos Tsitsipas ranks fifth among 2019 Nitto ATP Finals competitors having won just short of 66 per cent of his indoor matches, and reigning season finale champion Alexander Zverev is sixth with a 60.6 winning percentage.

Rounding out the London field are Dominic Thiem, who has won more than 58 per cent of his indoor matches, and first-time qualifier Matteo Berrettini at over 56 per cent.

Did You Know?
There have been 14 tour-level knockout tournaments indoors this season, and Nitto ATP Finals qualifiers won six of them.

To get a sense of just how much it means to Stefanos Tsitsipas to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time, all you have to do is watch the video of when he found out he had secured a spot in London.

An interviewer broke the news to Tsitsipas on camera, just after he had defeated Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals of the ATP Masters 1000 event in Shanghai in October. The 21-year-old Greek burst into laughter, almost in disbelief, as the reporter assured him he was telling the truth. “It’s great. It’s sweet,” Tsitsipas later said with a grin on his face, after processing the good news. “It’s something that I have been trying to get, and it was on my [wish] list from the beginning of the year.”

Just 12 months after lifting the Next Gen ATP Finals trophy in Milan, which is for players who are 21 or under, Tsitsipas has positioned himself among the world’s top eight players, of all ages, at this season-ending tournament in London. The first Greek player in history to feature in this elite competition, Tsitsipas enters the Nitto ATP Finals after a year in which he has kept on crossing off items on his wish list. Before the start of the season, he set himself some ambitious targets to chase throughout 2019. And he did not shy away from announcing them, unfazed by the thought that being so public with his goals would add to the pressure he was under.

Barely four weeks into the season, he achieved his first main goal when he reached a first Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open, upsetting Roger Federer en route in a blockbuster fourth-round encounter. A month later, he crossed another item off his list by cracking the Top 10 in the ATP Rankings for the first time, becoming the first Greek to climb that high in the standings. By April, he had picked up a second title of the year in Estoril, to go with the one he had scooped in Marseille in February (and to add to his first ATP Tour title in Stockholm in 2018, when he was the first Greek in history to win a trophy at that level).

Among other highlights this season, he accomplished one of the toughest feats in tennis, overcoming Rafael Nadal on clay at the Spaniard’s home tournament, the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid in May. In June, he co-produced one of the best matches of the year with Stan Wawrinka, in the fourth round at Roland Garros. And in October – after a tricky stint of sub-par results – he took down Djokovic in Shanghai. “I always dreamt of beating those players, and I see each match when I go out on the court as an opportunity to bring the best out of me,” said Tsitsipas. “It’s a very big boost. I honestly feel like they are more threatened than I am, and I think also that gives me kind of a more relaxed me out on the court.”

While Tsitsipas is not the only young gun making an impact on the ATP Tour at the moment, he is very much one-of-a-kind. “I’m not perfect, I’m original,” he wrote in a social media post this year. ‘Original’ is an apt description. While others his age spend most of their downtime playing video games or streaming TV shows, Tsitsipas dedicates hours each week to his amateur photography, as well as filming, editing and producing vlogs for his YouTube channel, which has more than 160,000 subscribers.

“Photography for me is a way to shape human perception, a creative outlet which lives in the present and pushes you to discover yourself,” said Tsitsipas, who has an alternative Instagram account, @stevethehawk. He says his vlogs help him stay “open-minded and young, being able to just live life and share moments with other human beings”.

His social media accounts are a mix of philosophical quotes and cryptic one-liners only he can decipher. But when he felt he was spending more time than he wanted to on such platforms, he went on a “social media detox” on various occasions this year. It was a move he believes helped him both on and off the court. “I feel much more connected than before with people that I care about,” he said. “I spend more quality time. I feel more human and more like me than ever before. I feel like I can also concentrate more on the sport that I play.”

Tall, quirky and with hair like Björn Borg, Tsitsipas also brings an exciting game style that feels like a throwback to a bygone era. He ventures to the net any chance he gets, flaunting smooth hand skills and daring dive volleys, reminiscent of a young Boris Becker.

At 6’4”, he has a big serve that helped him win around 85 per cent of his service games this season. Another attribute is his ability to play his best tennis at moments of great intensity, while he takes enormous pride in putting Greece on the tennis map.

Tsitsipas is coached by his father, Apostolos, who saved him from drowning in 2015 – an incident the player admits gave him a new perspective on life. Tsitsipas tries to do his part in helping others. When Greece was ravaged by deadly fires in 2018, Tsitsipas spent hours each day trying to raise funds to send back home, even when he was due to step on court for a semi-final a few minutes later.

His ability to engage with fans by showing his most authentic, unapologetic self, combined with his thrilling on-court game, has seen his popularity soar this year. Having posted victories over the sport’s Big Three of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, and with the kind of self-confidence that has inserted him among the world’s best, many believe Tsitsipas could be the one to break the trio’s stronghold.

“At some point we will see change. I mean, it can’t be that Rafa, Roger, and Novak win everything,” Tsitsipas said. “I know that in order to see my name among these titles, I’m going to have to go through a lot of pain and a lot of hype and struggle. I’m honestly excited. I’m excited by the idea of trying to get there.”