It will be No. 1 vs. No. 2 in the doubles championship of the Nitto ATP Finals, when Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo duel with Henri Kontinen and John Peers. The hottest rivalry of the year on the ATP World Tour doubles circuit will have a fitting conclusion on Sunday at The O2 in London. Kubot and Melo secured the year-end No. 1 position in the Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings, but Kontinen and Peers enter as the defending champions at the season finale. Both teams will be keen to cap their campaigns with a trophy, as the curtain falls on 2017. While the top-seeded Polish-Brazilian duo celebrated a more successful season overall, they struggled to find any consistent gains...
In a field limited to only the best of the best at season’s end, the Nitto ATP Finals generates a unique buzz on tour. Roger Federer remembers the exhilaration in qualifying in his early 20s, while his semi-final opponent on Saturday, David Goffin, had his first taste of it as an alternate player at last year’s season finale before qualifying outright this year. In the 15 years since his first season-ending championships, Federer’s outlook has understandably changed. As the 36-year-old said, following his third straight group-stage victory over Marin Cilic, he has come to appreciate it even more at his age. “Look, in the beginning it was like being a kid in a candy store, sharing the locker-room with legends...
For the first time in Nitto ATP Finals history, three debutants are into the semi-finals at the season finale. And with sixth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov, who won Group Pete Sampras, playing eighth-seeded Jack Sock, the second qualifier from Group Boris Becker, the London crowd is guaranteed at least one debutant in the final for the first time since 2007 (David Ferrer). It goes without saying that this final four-clash is a tremendous opportunity for both Dimitrov and Sock. Not only will the winner become the lowest seed to advance to the championship match since No. 6-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2011, but they will give themselves an opportunity to win the biggest title of their careers. That adds even more pressure to...
One week ago, Grigor Dimitrov could not contain his enthusiasm as he entered The O2 for the first time. The giddy Bulgarian exclaimed that qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals "was a dream come true". There's a good chance Dimitrov is still dreaming. The sixth seed has since swept through Group Pete Sampras, ousting Dominic Thiem and David Goffin to clinch the top spot. He will look to complete a perfect run through the round-robin stage when he faces Pablo Carreno Busta on Friday evening. The 26-year-olds have split their four FedEx ATP Head2Head encounters, with all encounters coming at the biggest tournaments. In 2014 and 2015, Dimitrov claimed a pair of straight-set routs at the ATP World Tour Masters...
Six days. Nine players. 24 singles matches by Friday’s end. And the fourth spot in the semi-finals of the season finale will come down to one match in Group Pete Sampras between fourth-seeded Dominic Thiem and seventh-seeded David Goffin on Friday afternoon. There will be no counting sets or games involved — the winner moves on, and the loser goes home. Both Thiem and Goffin have one victory each at this Nitto ATP Finals, and the winner between them will earn a semi-final clash against second-seeded Roger Federer, who finished with a perfect record in round-robin play on Thursday. Perhaps that is why Thiem was so excited after his victory on Wednesday evening against Pablo Carreno Busta. “I'm very happy...
