Thursday, November 7, 2024, 3:19 p.m.
Carlos Alcaraz has been relatively lucky in the draw for the group stage of the ATP Finals, he has avoided Jannik Sinner, world number one, and will face Alexander Zverev, Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev. The Spaniard has fallen into the John Newcombe group, while Sinner, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur will be in the Ilie Nastase.
The tournament, which runs from November 13 to 20, brings together the eight best rackets of the year, but has been diminished by the loss of Novak Djokovic, who claimed an injury to close the season. This will be the first edition without at least one member of the ‘Big Three’ (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic) since 2001, when Lleyton Hewitt was proclaimed champion. The Australian repeated the title the following year, when Federer debuted, finishing his career with six titles in this event, only behind Djokovic’s seven.
Alcaraz faces the penultimate tournament of the season in Turin after the disappointments of the Shanghai Masters 1,000, where he remained in the quarterfinals, and the Paris-Bercy, where he fell in the second round. The Spaniard already made the semifinals last year, but was crushed by Djokovic in that round.
Unlike 2023, Alcaraz, who has already been training for a couple of days in the Italian city, seems to be more rested and in better condition, after the breaks he took after the group stage of the Davis Cup and after the tournament of Shanghai, where only the Saudi Arabia exhibition played.
These mini-vacations have helped Alcaraz to arrive in shape for a month of November that looks exciting for the Murcian, with his first real option to be crowned master and the Davis Cup in Malaga, in which he will say goodbye to the legend Rafael Nadal.
The draw, held this Thursday, has been kind to the Spaniard and has prevented him from facing Sinner; whatever happens in the tournament, he will end the season as number one in the world. The Italian will return to the competition in Turin after being absent from Paris-Bercy due to illness. If both finish first in their respective groups, they could only meet in the final.
In the ’round robin’ he will have duels with Medvedev, whom he has won seven of the last eight meetings, Fritz, whom he dominates in the ‘face to face’ 2-1, and De Minaur, whom he has defeated in his seven duels.
In the case of Alcaraz, he will face Zverev, recent winner in Paris-Bercy and number two in the world. The German is the great rival of the group and has a head-to-head tie at five with the Murcian, but the last two games, Roland Garros and Indian Wells, have fallen on Alcaraz’s side.
Ruud has the measure, with four wins in four matches, while with Rublev he has played two matches, with victory on this same stage in 2023 and defeat in the 1,000 Masters in Madrid this year.
Alcaraz aspires to a prize pool of 14 million euros, of which the undefeated winner of the tournament, that is, who wins all five of his matches, could win 4.4 million. This is the largest official prize of the season, although the Saudi Arabia exhibition, which included, among others, Alcaraz, Sinner and Djokovic, gave almost 7 million to the Italian, who was proclaimed champion by beating Medvedev and Alcaraz.
The undefeated winner also wins 1,500 points, with which Alcaraz could return to number two in the world and remain far from Sinner who, at least, at the end of the tournament will still be above 10,000 points in the ATP rankings.
