Gauff wins WTA Finals after epic battle with Zheng
Coco Gauff shows supreme determination to come from behind against Zheng Qinwen to win the season-ending WTA Finals.
Coco Gauff shows supreme determination to come from behind against Zheng Qinwen to win the season-ending WTA Finals.
Britain’s Cameron Norrie is unable to finish a frustrating season on a high as he loses to France’s Benjamin Bonzi in the Moselle Open final.
Benjamin Bonzi overcame Cameron Norrie 7-6(6), 6-4 to lift his maiden ATP Tour title on home soil at the Moselle Open in Metz on Saturday.
Backed by a vocal home crowd, Bonzi delivered an impressive performance on serve, firing 10 aces and winning 75 per cent (45/60) of his first-serve points. The French qualifier entered the tournament with a 0-6 record this season, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index.
[ATP APP]Playing Norrie for the first time, Bonzi took a 1-0 lead in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series. He will rise to No. 78 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, after having started the week at No. 124.
More to come
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Top seeds Jamie Murray and John Peers wrapped up another strong week by clinching their second title together this season at the Belgrade Open on Saturday.
The British-Australian pair displayed solid form in the championship match and staged a comeback to oust fourth seeds Ivan Dodig and Skander Mansouri 3-6, 7-6(5), 11-9, in their maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.
Murray and Peers maintained a near-perfect record and dropped their only set of the week in the final. The duo won 76 per cent (32/42) of their first-serve points, converted one break point out of five opportunities, and emerged victorious in one hour and 36 minutes.
With the win, they claimed their eighth title as a team. The pair, who teamed for the first time since 2016 in August this year, also won the Swiss Indoors Basel trophy in October.
[ATP APP]Arends/Johnson clinch Metz crown
Sander Arends and Luke Johnson ended Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Albano Olivetti’s hopes of winning a title together on home soil at the Moselle Open on Saturday.
The Dutch-British pair rallied to defeat Herbert and Olivetti 6-4, 3-6, 10-3 to clinch the Moselle Open crown. Buoyed by the home support, Herbert and Olivetti’s second-set comeback wasn’t enough, as Arends and Johnson proved too strong to seal their first tour-level title as a team.
The two fended off the challenge posed by the Frenchmen in one hour and 18 minutes. They fired 10 aces and saved five of the seven break points they faced.
“It was really difficult for us to play against you today,” said Arends in the post-match interview. “I felt like I didn’t play [against] two guys, I played against [about] 2000 guys.”
Herbert and Olivetti were aiming to become the first all-French team to clinch the title in Metz since Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin achieved the feat in 2018.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]The 2024 Nitto ATP Finals kicks off Sunday in Turin with two singles matches and two doubles matches between the game’s very best in the Inalpi Arena.
The Ilie Nastase Group will begin singles play on Day 1, with Italy’s Jannik Sinner taking on debutatant Alex de Minaur in the evening session, after Daniil Medvedev meets Taylor Fritz during the day session. Day 1 doubles action will begin with Nikola Mektic and Wesley Koolhof taking on Aussies Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson, before Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos play Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten.
[ATP APP][1] Jannik Sinner (ITA) vs. [7] Alex de Minaur (AUS)
No one at the Nitto ATP Finals has the luxury of playing his way into form in Turin. That’s doubly true for De Minaur, who drew Sinner — already confirmed as the year-end No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings — as the opening assignment of his maiden campaign at the season finale.
The Aussie will hope Sunday is a day of firsts in more ways than one. In addition to making his Nitto ATP Finals debut, the 25-year-old will be bidding for his first Lexus ATP Head2Head victory in eight tries against Sinner.
“It is not rocket science, but you have to be ready from the word go. It doesn’t get any harder than starting against Jannik,” De Minaur said after the draw. “From the very start, I need to be ready, I need to compete. It is going to be a great experience. A great challenge. But this is where I have wanted to be all these years.”
As a reward for his breakthrough into the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings this season, De Minaur earned a place among the game’s best in Turin. Even among that elite group, Sinner’s season stands out. The Italian racked up 65 wins and a tour-leading seven titles in 2024, including his first two major titles at the Australian Open and the US Open.
Perhaps the only thing missing for the Italian this year? Competing in his home nation. Sinner missed the Rome ATP Masters 1000 with a hip injury, making his Turin return even more significant.
“Many things make [this tournament] special,” Sinner told ATP Media on Thursday. “First of all, being an Italian and playing in Italy. I haven’t played in Italy this year, because I missed Rome. That was a really tough one, but I am even more excited and happy to be here.”
The evening showdown between Sinner and De Minaur will see perhaps the game’s purest ballstriker attempt to hit through one of the most dogged defenders in the sport. While De Minaur is more than capable of taking the action to Sinner, his ability to “steal” points from defence will be key in his upset bid. According to Tennis Data Innovations, De Minaur won 38.5 per cent of points this year in which his opponent gains an attacking advantage. That ability will be put to the test on Sunday evening.
<img alt=”Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/11/09/04/34/medvedev-fritz-turin-2024-graphic.jpg” style=”width: 100%;” />
[4] Daniil Medvedev vs. [5] Taylor Fritz (USA)
While Medvedev and Fritz have both been ever-presents near the top of the PIF ATP Rankings in recent years, they only have one previous Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting between them. At the Cincinnati ATP Masters 1000 in 2022, Medvedev was a straight-sets winner in the quarter-finals.
Both men competed at the Nitto ATP Finals that season. This year, Medvedev makes his sixth straight appearance at the event, while Fritz returns for his second.
“With Taylor, it’s pretty crazy because we’ve both been Top 10 for like three years and we kind of started to be on Tour at the same time and we’ve only played each other one time, which is crazy,” said Medvedev.
Quick conditions are expected in the Inalpi Arena, but Fritz is wary of his opponent’s ability to slow things down.
“Daniil is obviously very awkward [to play] because he slows down the speed of the match a lot with how he plays and how he hits the ball. He doesn’t play with a lot of spin or lift for you to work off of,” Fritz said. “You constantly are feeling like you have to lift and generate pace. He slows down the court a lot.”
After reaching his first Grand Slam final this year at the US Open and notching 17 total wins at the majors, Fritz is focused on continuing his consistency at the big events. Medvedev’s best major result also came on the hard courts of New York, where he won the 2021 title, denying Novak Djokovic a calendar-year Grand Slam with a flawless final performance
Both men have also enjoyed success at the Nitto ATP Finals. Medvedev won the title in 2020 before reaching the 2021 final and the 2023 semis. Fritz powered his way into the 2022 semi-finals in his lone previous Turin appearance, beating Rafael Nadal along the way. There could yet be space for both men in this year’s knockout rounds, but the toughest tournament in tennis will become even more challenging for the loser of this opening showdown.
Doubles Action
Second seeds Granollers and Zeballos seek to go one step further at the Nitto ATP Finals after a championship match defeat to Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in 2023. The Spanish-Argentine team was seeded fifth last year but enter the 2024 finale at the second seeds behind ATP Masters 1000 titles in Rome and Montreal. They will meet seventh seeds Patten and Heliovaara, who won their first Grand Slam title both individually and as a pair at Wimbledon.
The opening doubles match will see third seeds Koolhof and Mektic face fifth-seeded Aussies Purcell and Thompson. Koolhof/Mektic won five titles this season — including at the ATP Masters 1000s in Indian Wells, Shanghai and Paris — while Purcell/Thompson count the US Open doubles crown among their four trophies this season. The Aussies also finished runners-up at Wimbledon.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]After a five-year wait, Denis Shapovalov became an ATP Tour champion once again on Saturday at the Serbia Open, where he defeated Serbian Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 to clinch his second tour-level crown.
Shapovalov was competing in his first final since Vienna in 2022 and was chasing his second title, having triumphed in Stockholm in 2019. The lefty is up 22 spots to No. 56 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, his highest position since he was No. 45 in October 2023.
“It was extremely tough. Hamad has been playing extremely well and is a good young talent coming up,” Shapovalov said. “It is not easy playing the young guys. He served well and I was trying to do my best to get into his games and I got a bit lucky in the first set to break him. I hit a couple of lucky returns and kind of carried that momentum early into the second.”
With a beaming smile, Shapovalov dropped to the court after sealing victory before he received the trophy from Serbian legend Novak Djokovic.
The 25-year-old qualifier played aggressively throughout the 77-minute final, firing 13 aces and winning 82 per cent (28/34) of his first-serve points according to Infosys ATP Stats to cap his week in style.
Shapovalov missed the second half of last season due to injury and spent 2024 regaining his best level. The 25-year-old, who is the first Canadian to win a tour-level title this year, came through qualifying in Belgrade, where he dropped just one set to win the trophy.
“It has been a good season for me, just been healthy and back on court. It takes time to climb back up the rankings. A week like this will help a lot.”
𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐒 𝐃𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐈𝐓 🙌@denis_shapo is your Belgrade Open 2024 champion! 🏆#BelgradeOpen pic.twitter.com/oHOYT9y96u
— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 9, 2024
Shapovalov’s best results in 2024 prior to this week came at ATP 500 events in Washington and Basel, where he reached quarter-finals.
Medjedovic was playing in his maiden ATP Tour final. The 21-year-old, who won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF title last year, ends 2024 holding a 9-8 tour-level record on the season.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Jannik Sinner is looking to cap a superb year with a first ATP Finals triumph. Here’s everything you need to know about the event – and pick your tip for the title.
After a dramatic season on the ATP Tour, the Nitto ATP Finals is here, with the best eight qualified players set to compete at the year-end event in Turin from Sunday.
Italian World No. 1 Jannik Sinner and Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz are aiming to win the title for the first time, while former champions Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev hope to go deep again in northern Italy. Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev complete the singles lineup.
In doubles, eight teams will battle it out on court in Italy, where Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic are the top seeds. Ahead of the event, ATPTour.com looks at five things to watch at the season finale.
[ATP APP]1) Home star Sinner: Jannik Sinner enjoyed a standout season on the ATP Tour, climbing to No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings and winning majors at the Australian Open and US Open. Holding a 65-6 record on the year, the Italian will aim to add to his Tour-leading seven titles on home soil in Turin. Last year, the 23-year-old reached the championship match, falling to Novak Djokovic.
2) Ilie Nastase Group: Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur will compete in The Ilie Nastase Group alongside Sinner. The 2020 champ Medvedev is making his sixth consecutive appearance at the event, while Fritz reached the semis in 2022. Australian De Minaur, who has won two titles this year, is set for his debut. Alcaraz and Zverev have enjoyed a thrilling rivalry in 2024, with the Spaniard leading the German 2-1 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series this year. They are tied 5-5 overall.
3) John Newcombe Group: Two-time champ Alexander Zverev leads The John Newcombe Group alongside Carlos Alcaraz, Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev. Zverev arrives fresh off his title run at the Rolex Paris Masters, while Alcaraz will hope to improve on his semi-final showing in Turin from last season. Ruud and Rublev have both lifted two trophies in 2024.
4) Doubles stars ready to go: Top seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic headine the draw and will compete in The Bob Bryan group with Italians Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden, and Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz. Second seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos top the Mike Bryan Group with Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic, Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson, and Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten.
Koolhof (2020), Mektic (2020) and Granollers (2012) are all former doubles champions at the event.
5) Turin ready to host for fourth year: The Inalpi Arena will host the season finale for the fourth consecutive year. The 54th edition of the Nitto ATP Finals will see eight players divided into two groups of four, with the top two from each group advancing to the semi-finals. Capacity crowds are expected in the Inalpi Arena, where players have been practising since Monday.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]The ATP has today launched the ‘ATP No.1 Club’, which for the first time in the 50+ year history of the official rankings will unite all former, current and future ATP World No.1 players. The initiative, unveiled at the 2024 Nitto ATP Finals, will celebrate the most remarkable achievement in men’s professional tennis: reaching the pinnacle of the PIF ATP Rankings.
The ATP No.1 Club today brings together an exclusive group of 29 players across generations – from Nastase and Newcombe to Borg and McEnroe, to Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, to Alcaraz and Sinner – with future No. 1s to be directly welcomed into the Club. Through original storytelling, fans will be able to stay connected with these iconic champions, while celebrating one of the rarest accomplishments in all of sports: the achievement of the No. 1 PIF ATP Ranking.
In 2025, the Club will debut a dedicated brand identity, with each No.1 player receiving exclusive benefits, including invitations to signature events, promotional opportunities and more. As a landmark celebration of the new No. 1 Club, all 29 players will be officially honoured at a showpiece event at the 2025 Nitto ATP Finals in Turin. To mark the occasion, each player will be presented with a bespoke gift to commemorate their membership.
Speaking this week at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, No.1 Club members Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev shared their thoughts on what the No.1 ranking means to them.
Carlos Alcaraz said: “Nothing compares to achieving the World No.1 ranking. It’s what you strive for as a tennis player – to be the best, to have no one above you.”
Jannik Sinner said: “Becoming the No.1 is a childhood dream. It’s an honour to sit among the greats of our sport as part of the No.1 Club, each one of us bringing something unique to the game.”
Daniil Medvedev said: “Very few players have managed to reach the No.1 spot. You need to be able to play at the highest level, week after week. That’s what makes the No.1 Club so special – it’s an opportunity for us to come together and celebrate everything we’ve accomplished.”
Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman, said: “Reaching the summit of the rankings is the ultimate achievement in our sport. Only 29 players have had what it takes to secure the No.1 spot – not only striking talent, but a level of resilience, self-belief and devotion that is admired far beyond the realm of tennis. The ATP No.1 Club is a celebration of the spectacular ways that these players have shaped the game. And, with fans at the heart of everything we do, it creates an entertainment spectacle aimed at bringing them closer than ever before to the players they love.”
Today’s launch is marked by the release of a captivating ATP No. 1 Club teaser video, designed to pay homage to the flair, style and spirit of the ATP’s greatest champions.
To register for all the latest information on the ‘ATP No.1 Club’, click here.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]