The inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan this week has showcased a number of rule changes and innovations. The 21-and-under event has featured Hawk Eye electronic line calling, short format set (first to four games with a tie-break at 3-all), best of five sets with no-Ad scoring, shorter warm-ups, a shot clock, no lets, player coaching and one medical time out per match. Ahead of the Nitto ATP Finals, beginning on Sunday, a number of the world’s best singles players expressed their views on what may become a reality on the ATP World Tour. Rafael Nadal “I’m not sure if it’s the right way or not. If we aren’t trying anything, we can’t say we’re getting better. There are...
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...
Just days before the Nitto ATP Finals began, Jack Sock didn’t even know he could still qualify for the season finale for the first time. But, as Mark Hodgkinson writes, Sock then went on the most exhilarating ride through the Paris draw to win a first Masters 1000 title, with that victory bringing him across the Channel as the first American singles qualifier at The O2 since 2011. In the information age – a time of big data, rolling television news and alerts sent to your smartphone – ignorance can be a wonderful thing. Take Jack Sock, who just before Halloween rolled up at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 in Paris – the last opportunity to qualify for the...