Wednesday’s final match was intense, and it was largely due to the innovative format being used at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals.

Borna Coric was serving for the match against Daniil Medvedev, up two sets to one and 3-2, 40/15. On the surface, it seemed like the Russian had little chance. But thanks to the no-ad scoring system, when Medvedev found his way to deuce, everything was on the line. One more point and he could force a tie-break, and from there a fifth set.

But Medvedev could not save a third match point, and Coric prevailed, 4-3(5), 2-4, 4-1, 4-2.

“I think it was really physical,” Coric said. “The first two sets were extremely tough.

Coric’s physicality was simply too much for Medvedev. The Croatian wore the seventh seed down over the course of the match. Coric began to gain rhythm on the Russian’s serving patterns, especially in the deuce court, and once rallies became extended the advantage went to Coric, who won 61 per cent of the total points over the final two sets, erasing all four break points.

Whereas Hyeon Chung advanced to the semi-finals earlier in the day thanks to his second victory of the tournament, Coric still has work to do after his second triumph. Both Group B spots in the semi-finals remain up for grabs on Thursday, the final day of round-robin play.

Coric will play the group’s other Wednesday winner, Karen Khachanov, in Thursday’s final evening session match.

Medvedev, who defeated Khachanov in the first match of the event, will look to add his second win against Jared Donaldson, who seeks his first.

There are 13 different qualifying scenarios for Group B, with Coric moving on in all but possibly two of them. If Khachanov and Medvedev both triumph in three sets, then Khachanov will win the group and Medvedev would qualify second. If Khachanov wins in four sets and Medvedev in three sets, then Donaldson the order will be determined by the percentage of games won. In all scenarios, Donaldson has been eliminated from contention for the semi-finals.

The Next Gen ATP Finals has been branded as “The Future of Tennis”. But Denis Shapovalov was all old-school on Wednesday night in Milan.

The 18-year-old Canadian dominated Italian wild card Gianluigi Quinzi at the Fiera Milano, blasting 41 winners to pick up his first victory at the inaugural tournament, 4-1, 4-1, 3-4(5), 4-3(5) in 89 minutes.

Shapovalov is now 1-1 in Milan and will have a chance to reach the semi-finals on Thursday when he faces top seed Andrey Rublev. The winner will advance to the last four. 

“It was extremely tough. Gianluigi started playing unbelievable in the third set,” Shapovalov said. “It was tough to stay in it mentally so I’m really proud of myself.”

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Shapovalov had dropped his opener, falling on Tuesday to South Korea’s Hyeon Chung, who became the first to reach the semi-finals on Wednesday behind a 2-0 start and is the Group A champion. But the Canadian, who counts wins against Juan Martin del Potro, Rafael Nadal and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga among his best victories this year, had to like his chances against the left-handed Quinzi.

Every time the 21-year-old Italian hit his best shot – his forehand – cross-court, he fed it to Shapovalov’s best shot – his forehand. So points often resulted in forehand rallies, a matchup Shapovalov welcomed all evening.

Down two sets to love, Quinzi mixed up his tactics in the third set, targetting Shapovalov’s backhand. The change helped him mount a comeback and force Shapovalov into a fourth set. But the Canadian avoided a five-setter against the home favourite.

Quinzi, a former junior World No. 1 who won the 2013 Wimbledon junior boys title, will go for his first win in Milan when he faces Chung on Thursday.

To survive in both elite tennis and Russian politics, you need good intelligence or just to be exceptionally astute. Who can you trust?

“In tennis and politics, you have to know who your friends are and also who your enemies are,” says Marat Safin.

The Russian has navigated both worlds. And now, he is stepping back onto the tennis court to compete in Champions Tennis at the Royal Albert Hall in London, an ATP Champions Tour event taking place from 29 November through 3 December.

As a former world number one, and a winner of two Grand Slam singles titles, Safin could have spent his retirement “making commercials left and right and pretending that I’m a celebrity”, and perhaps competing on the ATP Champions Tour.

But that wouldn’t have been the life for him, and instead he sought and won a seat in the Duma. From 2011 until earlier this year, he sat in the Russian parliament as a member of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party. In Safin’s analysis, there are a number of similarities between tennis and the Duma, where he represented the Nizhny Novgorod region, with his success as an athlete helping him in his second career as a politician (and not just because it meant he already had a public profile).

“As a tennis player and also as a politician, you have to be in the moment and you have to be very sure of what you’re doing,” said the 37-year-old Safin, who retired from tennis in 2009. “There are lots of moving parts, so you have to know what your goal is and what your strategy is to achieve that goal. I’ve taken what I learned from tennis and implemented that into a life after sport.”

Safin once suggested he “could be the best looking guy in the Duma, but that’s only because all the other guys are over 60.” Known during his playing days for his destructive tendencies — he has estimated he broke around 700 racqets during his career — Safin has appreciated creating something, and “getting things done”, as “part of a big machine.”

“Being in the Duma has been a really important ride for me. I was in the Duma for six years and I learned a lot. I learned how the system works and there were lots of things to discover that the normal person, outside the Duma, perhaps wouldn’t understand,” Safin said. “It was a pleasure to experience this for myself to see how everything works in the world, and you start to have a lot of respect for a lot of people because you see how they get things to happen.”

According to the Muscovite, working in politics takes a massive effort.

“Things don’t happen on their own; they happen because of the work that people put in, because of the system,” Safin said. “It’s a big machine and being a part of it was a great thing. Anybody who gets the opportunity to work for any government at a federal level, that’s going to be a huge thing in their life. It’s probably going to be difficult but you can take pride in the work that you do.”

Feeling as though “it was time to move on”, Safin stepped down from the Duma to begin “a new life”, which includes making his first appearance in the ATP Champions Tour event at the Royal Albert Hall. The power in Safin’s game is sure to captivate the fans in London.

It was at the 2000 US Open that Safin, with his muscular, aggressive tennis, hit Pete Sampras off the court to win his first major, and five years later he defeated Lleyton Hewitt in the 2005 Australian Open final to score his second. Among other highlights, he twice won the Davis Cup for Russia, in 2002 and 2006, and in 2008 reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon, his deepest ever run at the All England Club.

“There used to be lots of stresses on the tour, but playing tennis now, there’s a lot more pleasure. You have to think about it this way, because too much stress is really unpleasant. I’m enjoying tennis a lot more than I used to when I was on the regular tour,” says Safin, whose fitness regime has included playing ice hockey. “The players say the Champions tennis tournament is a great event, and I’ve been looking forward to playing in London. For sure, it’s going to be a great tournament, and I think I’ll enjoy the experience.”

The draw ceremony for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 12-19 November, has been made on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show, live on BBC Radio 2 with Boris Becker, on Wednesday morning.

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Singles – Group Pete Sampras
[1] Rafael Nadal (ESP)
[4] Dominic Thiem (AUT)
[6] Grigor Dimitrov (BUL)
[7] David Goffin (BEL)

Singles – Group Boris Becker
[2] Roger Federer (SUI)
[3] Alexander Zverev (GER)
[5] Marin Cilic (CRO)
[8] Jack Sock (USA)

Nadal, who has won six titles in an exceptional year — including his 10th Roland Garros and third US Open crown — leads Group Pete Sampras alongside Dominic Thiem (5-2 FedEx ATP Head2Head record), Grigor Dimitrov (10-1) and David Goffin (2-0). Nadal, who has a 67-10 match record in 2017, has qualified for the season finale for the 13th successive year, highlighted by a run to the 2010 (l. to Federer) and 2013 (l. to Djokovic) finals.

Federer, who has a 52-12 career record at the Nitto ATP Finals, is looking to capture a seventh year-end title (2003-04, 2006-07, 2010-11). The Swiss has been drawn in Group Boris Becker with Alexander Zverev (2-2 FedEx ATP Head2Head), Marin Cilic (7-1) and Jack Sock (3-0). Federer has a 49-4 mark and an ATP World Tour-best seven titles in 2017.

Eight different countries are represented in the elite eight-man singles field for the second successive year, with Group Pete Sampras matches scheduled to begin on Sunday, 12 November. Group Boris Becker matches will begin on Monday, 13 November. Pete Sampras won the 1991, 1994, 1996-97, 1999 season finale crowns, while Boris Becker won the 1988, 1992, 1995 titles.

Doubles – Group Woodbridge/Woodforde
[1] Lukasz Kubot (POL) / Marcelo Melo (BRA)
[4] Jamie Murray (GBR) / Bruno Soares (BRA)
[5] Bob Bryan (USA) / Mike Bryan (USA)
[7] Ivan Dodig (CRO) / Marcel Granollers (ESP)

Doubles – Group Eltingh/Haarhuis
[2] Henri Kontinen (FIN) / John Peers (AUS)

[3] Jean-Julien Rojer (NED) / Horia Tecau (ROU)
[6] Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) / Nicolas Mahut (FRA)
[8] Ryan Harrison (USA) / Michael Venus (NZL)

The quest to be crowned year-end No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings will reach fever pitch as Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo and Henri Kontinen and John Peers square-off for the title.

Kubot and Melo have won an ATP World Tour-best six doubles titles this season — including Wimbledon and three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crowns (Miami, Madrid and Paris). The Polish-Brazilian team have 8,600 points in the Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings, 1,270 points ahead of second-placed Kontinen and Peers, winner of four trophies — including the Australian Open. With 1,500 points up for grabs at the Nitto ATP Finals, Kubot and Melo require two round-robin match wins to become the year-end No. 1 team.

Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde won the 1992 and 1996 year-end doubles titles, while Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis, picked up the 1993 and 1998 trophies.

The BBC and ATP have today announced an extension to their broadcast deal for the Nitto ATP Finals which will see the tournament broadcast live in 2019 and 2020. The deal is for exclusive free-to-air TV rights for eight singles matches, including a semi-final and the final, and includes the right to stream these matches across the BBC’s online platforms, as well as non-exclusive radio rights for the whole tournament.  The deal also includes non-exclusive radio rights to all ATP World Tour Masters 1000 matches.

The Nitto ATP Finals is the climax to the men’s professional season, featuring the best eight qualified singles players and doubles teams battling it out for the last title of the season. 2016 saw Andy Murray seal a fairytale end to the year as he defeated Novak Djokovic to win his first Nitto ATP Finals title and end the year as the world number one. 

BBC Director of Sport, Barbara Slater, said: “We’re thrilled to extend our partnership with ATP ensuring top class tennis continues to reach the widest possible audience on free to air TV, radio and our live streaming service.”

Chris Kermode, ATP Executive Chairman & President, said: “The BBC has provided a terrific platform for our season finale since we moved the tournament to London in 2009, giving millions of fans in the UK the opportunity to watch the very best in men’s professional tennis. We’re delighted to extend our partnership a further two years through to 2020.”

The 2017 Nitto ATP Finals take place from 12-19 November live on the BBC.