Twenty-year-old Alexander Zverev is set to make his debut at the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held 12-19 November at The O2 in London. A winner of two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles this season, the German joins Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the 2017 field, leaving five places up for grabs with six weeks to go until the season-ending tournament.

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“It’s obviously a great event, playing in The O2 arena is something amazing for any player,” said Zverev, who attended the tournament in 2015 to receive his ATP Star of Tomorrow Award presented by Emirates. “The atmosphere is amazing. I’ll be ready for it. This shows me how well I played all over the season, how consistent I was and I think that’s something every player is very proud of.”

Zverev, who qualified by reaching the semi-finals at the China Open in Beijing, is the youngest player to clinch a berth at the season finale since a 20-year-old Juan Martin del Potro in 2008 and the first German singles qualifier since Rainer Schuettler in 2003.

One year since lifting his first ATP World Tour trophy at the St. Petersburg Open, Zverev has won five in 2017 – tied with Nadal and Federer for the most singles titles this season. With his triumphs on clay at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome (d. Djokovic) and on hard court at the Coupe Rogers in Montreal (d. Federer), he became the first player outside the ATP’s ‘Big Four’ to win multiple Masters 1000 titles in a season since David Nalbandian in 2007.

Zverev additionally won the ATP World Tour 500 title at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C., and claimed a pair of ATP World Tour 250 titles – at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier and BMW Open by FWU in Munich. In Montpellier, he also teamed up with older brother Mischa Zverev to win the doubles title.

The Nitto ATP Finals welcomes more than 250,000 fans to The O2 arena each year, as well as generating a global TV viewership of more than 100 million, as the ATP’s best eight singles players and doubles teams compete over eight days at the biggest indoor tennis tournament in the world.

Rafael Nadal will look to get the better of a player hoping to join him at next month’s Nitto ATP Finals, Grigor Dimitrov, on Saturday in the China Open semi-finals. Nadal leads Dimitrov 8-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

Top seed and 2005 champion Nadal, who is bidding to become year-end No. 1 for the fourth time (also 2008, 2010, 2013), knocked out sixth-seeded American John Isner 6-4, 7-6(0) to improve to a 23-5 mark at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in China.

Nadal broke Isner’s serve at 5-4 in the first set, then recovered from 15/40 in the second game of the second set before sweeping through the tie-break. The Spanish superstar is now an ATP World Tour-best 59-9 (32-7 on hard courts) in 2017 and continues his quest for a 75th tour-level crown.

Earlier in the day, Dimitrov further strengthened his bid for a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals – to be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November – by advancing to the Beijing semi-finals.

Dimitrov improved to 38-15 on the season after he defeated fifth seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-2 in the quarter-finals over two hours and 29 minutes.

The victory gives Dimitrov 90 points in Emirates ATP Race To London (now 3,275 points), but the Bulgarian remains in fifth position 440 points behind Austrian Dominic Thiem (3,715).

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Belgian David Goffin continued his rise up the Emirates ATP Race To London and into contention for a spot at the Nitto ATP Finals on Friday when he reached the semi-finals of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2017.

Fourth seed Goffin recovered from a 2-5 deficit in the first set and three set points to defeat 2007 finalist Richard Gasquet of France 7-5, 6-2 in one hour and 38 minutes on an overcast and wet Friday in Tokyo. He will now prepare to face eighth-seeded Argentine Diego Schwartzman on Saturday.

Goffin, who began the week at No. 13 in the Emirates ATP Race To London, is now up to No. 11 and within just 15 points of No. 10-placed American Sam Querrey (2,345 points), who holds the final qualification spot for the season finale that will be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November. Querrey lost to Gasquet in the Tokyo first round.

Goffin was made to work hard against Gasquet, who led 3-2 when rain stopped play and, with the players remaining on court, the Ariake Colosseum roof began to close. At 5-3, Gasquet failed to convert a 40/0 lead and paid the price in a run of seven straight games for Goffin. The consistent Belgian broke for a fourth time at 3-1 in the second set and is now seven matches unbeaten — 47-18 overall on the season that includes last week’s Shenzhen Open title (d. Dolgopolov).

Schwartzman won the first match of the day to advance to his second ATP World Tour semi-final of the year. He lost just three points in his first seven service games en route to a 6-0, 7-5 victory over American Steve Johnson in one hour and 33 minutes. The diminutive 25 year old, who reached the last four at Istanbul (l. to Cilic) in May, is now 32-23 on the season.

World No. 46 Johnson, who had beaten second seed Dominic Thiem of Austria in the first round and Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov in the second round, received on-court treatment for a neck complaint after the third game. Although he took time to work his way into the match, incredibly he held one set point at 5-4, Advantage, in the second set when Schwartzman was serving. Schwartzman, who created 17 break point opportunities in the pair’s first tour-level meeting, held on and broke in the next game before ultimately closing out after six match point chances.

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Alexander Zverev earned his 50th ATP World Tour match victory of the season with a straightforward 6-4, 6-2 win over Fabio Fognini in 73 minutes on Thursday, advancing to the quarter-finals of the China Open.

“I thought in the beginning we both played pretty well, from the baseline especially. I think [it was] a pretty high level,” Zverev said. “I’m happy to get through.”

The German, who broke the Italian four times, continued his pursuit of a tour-leading sixth ATP World Tour title in 2017. He is currently tied with fellow Beijing quarter-finalist Rafael Nadal and 19-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer with five titles each.

Zverev’s 25th hard-court victory of 2017 was also his second win over Fognini this year, after beating the 30 year old on clay in Rome.  The 20 year old is inching closer to securing his first appearance in the Nitto ATP Finals, currently sitting in third in the Emirates ATP Race To London.

Next, Zverev will face US Open quarter-finalist and #NextGenATP star Andrey Rublev, who upset World No. 20 Tomas Berych earlier Thursday. Their only previous tour-level meeting was in Monte Carlo last year, where Zverev won in straight sets.

“It’s obviously going to be an entertaining Next Gen match,” said Zverev, who competed both with and against Rublev many times in the juniors. “It’s obviously great to see young guys coming through, but tomorrow’s a match against him and I’m ready for it.” 

Andrey Rublev overcame a set and a break deficit to defeat World No. 20 Tomas Berdych, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 in one hour and 48 minutes at the China Open in Beijing on Thursday.

The #NextGenATP star trailed the Czech 1-6, 1-3 before storming back to win 11 of the next 13 games, severely damaging Berdych’s London dreams of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals.

After the former World No. 4 saved a break point to hold for 3-1 in the second set, his 19-year-old Russian opponent broke his serve on three consecutive occasions to completely turn the tide of the match, winning 64 per cent of points in the third set.

For Rublev, Thursday’s victory was the third Top 20 win of his young career, after beating both Grigor Dimitrov (No. 9) and David Goffin (No. 14) at this year’s US Open. He is now into his fourth ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season, after going on to win his first title as a lucky loser at the Plava Laguna Croatia Open in Umag this July.

Berdych was in pursuit of his first title of the season and was attempting to get back in the winners’ circle in Beijing after capturing the trophy in 2011. He was also sitting in 14th place in the Emirates ATP Race To London, and could have significantly increased his chances of qualifying with a strong week.

Rublev will now face the second seed, Alexander Zverev, who defeated veteran Fabio Fognini.