Turin, Italy.- Jannik Sinner y Carlos Alcaraz are ready to add another chapter to their rapidly developing rivalry when the ATP Finals start Sunday without any of the ‘Big Three’ for the first time in 23 years.
The world number one, Sinner, and number 3, Alcaraz, shared the titles of Grand Slam of the year with two each, and it would be appropriate for the pair to face each other again in Turin.
Sinner and Alcaraz were placed in different groups in Thursday’s draw.
The Ilie Nastase group has Sinner, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz y Alex de Minaur.
The John Newcombe group is made up of Alexander ZverevAlcaraz, Casper Ruud y Andrey Rublev.
After the round-robin stage, the top two finishers in each group advance to the semifinals.
Sinner retired from Paris Masters last week due to a virus and showed up early in Turin to train.
“This is the main event of the end of the year for me,” Sinner said.
The big name missing is that of the defending champion Novak Djokovicwho withdrew Tuesday due to an unspecified injury.
Sin el ‘Big Three’
Since 2001, no finals have been held without the presence of at least one of the members of the ‘Big Three’: Djokovic, Roger Federer o Rafael Nadal. This season was also the first since 2002 without at least one Grand Slam title for a member of that trio.
Djokovic has won the ATP Finals a record seven times. He beat Sinner in last year’s finals.
Federer, who retired in 2022, won the event six times after debuting in 2002; Nadal, who is retiring after playing the Davis Cup the week after the final, was a finalist twice in the final but never won it.
“It’s strange not seeing Novak here, just because of all the success he had,” Zverev said. “The first time I won in 2018, you had to beat both or at least two of the three players. I beat Federer in the semi-finals and then I beat Djokovic in the final. You had to beat those guys to have a chance at the title. So it feels different.”
“But I feel that now with Jannik and Carlos it moved in the same way, only with new guys. You have to go through them to win big tournaments. It’s as simple as that. They both won two Grand Slams this year and are the two best players in the world, without a doubt. You have to beat them to win a Grand Slam and I think it’s going to be the same here too,” Zverev added.
Alcaraz, with advantage
Sinner opened this year by winning the Australian Open to become the first Italian to win a Grand Slam singles title in almost half a century, since Adriano Panatta lifted the World Cup trophy. French Open in 1976.
Alcaraz then claimed the French Open titles and Wimbledon to raise his career total to four Grand Slams.
Sinner responded by winning the US Open.
Alcaraz won all three official meetings with Sinner this year and holds a 6-4 advantage in their career head-to-head rivalry. Last month, Sinner defeated Alcaraz at the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Saudi Arabia.
Attractive bag
If a player wins his five matches en route to the trophy, he will win $4.8 million, the largest prize for the winner on the men’s tour.
That’s significantly more than Sinner and Alcaraz earned for their victories at the US Open ($3.6 million) and Wimbledon (£2.7 million or $3.45 million) this year.
Source: Tribune
