The year’s best eight singles players and doubles teams came together Thursday night at the iconic Tower of London for the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals Official Launch, presented by Moët & Chandon. The Nitto ATP Finals, the season finale and biggest indoor tennis tournament in the world, runs 12-19 November at The O2 arena. After posing for group photos in front of the White Tower, the singles and doubles groups competing at this year’s season finale, took the stage in front of VIP guests in the New Armouries building. Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, making his first appearance at the tournament, said during the Q&A: “I've had a great season so far. Everything comes together right now and it's great to share...
There were times when the 2017 season seemed like it could have been a highlights reel taken from Rafael Nadal’s long, unparalleled career. There was Nadal performing his elaborate ritual of tics and tucks, preparing to serve. Nadal, deep in the backcourt, his body torqued and poised, about to uncoil a forehand. Nadal, battling his great rival, Roger Federer, in the final at the Australian Open, in Indian Wells, in Miami, in Shanghai. Nadal, hair matted with sweat, clothes streaked with clay, eyes creased into a smile, nibbling trophies in Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid and Roland Garros. On the hard courts of the US Open and Beijing, too. Nadal becoming the No.1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. It was all so...
Just 20 years old, Alexander Zverev is the youngest qualifier at the Nitto ATP Finals since Juan Martin Del Potro’s appearance at the 2008 season finale. Simon Briggs of The Daily Telegraph looks at the fast rise of a German who has been spoken of as a future No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. At the start of the year, Alexander Zverev would have been on most people’s lists to qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals, the experimental 21-and-under tournament that was held in Milan last week for the first time. But Zverev himself had other ideas. Sure, it would be good to prove himself the best player in his age-group. But why stop there? With his 130...
Four months after an emotional appearance in his first Wimbledon final, Marin Cilic is back in London after qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals for the third time. As Stuart Fraser of The Times writes, victory for Cilic this week would be a heartening tale. One of the enduring images of this year’s Wimbledon men’s singles final is of Marin Cilic breaking down during a change of ends, with the Croatian sitting on his chair with his head buried under a towel. Those tears came around 45 minutes into the match when Cilic, trailing by a set and 0-3, and with two medics crouched in front of him, was hit by the realisation it wasn’t to be his day. That...