The ATP Finals honor the top players from the season as they battle it out once more to crown the champion.
Last year that was Jannik Sinner, who made history at the ATP Finals by winning his first title at the year-end tournament in dominant fashion by beating Taylor Fritz in the final hosted in Turin.
Novak Djokovic has won the most ATP Finals titles with seven to his name, that includes winning four in consecutive fashion between 2012 and 2015.
However, Djokovic missed the ATP Finals in 2024 after withdrawing due to injury, despite being in a position to qualify.
The ATP Finals have not always been called by that name, and were first known as the Masters Cup for the inaugural edition in 1970.
John McEnroe and Arthur Ashe play twice at the 1978 Masters Cup
The inaugural edition of the Masters Cup was won by American Stan Smith in Tokyo, Japan, with the event moving to Madison Square Gardens in New York from 1977.
A 19-year-old John McEnroe made his debut at the 1978 edition of the Masters Cup, that was actually held in January 1979.
McEnroe was placed in a round-robin group of all Americans alongside Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors and Harold Solomon.
Despite being a newcomer to this prestigious event, teenager McEnroe seemed to take it all in his stride and progressed to the knockout stages without dropping a set.
Once again, McEnroe flourished on the big stage in his semi-final and beat Eddie Dibbs in straight sets to move within one match of the title.
This would set up a rematch with 35-year-old Ashe, who McEnroe had dispatched in the round-robin stage with a, 6-3 6-1, victory where he had only hit one unforced error.
However, Ashe, who had only qualified for the Masters Cup via withdrawals, overcame Brian Gottfried in the semi-finals and now had a chance to get revenge on McEnroe.
Ashe switched things up, changing his return position to deal with the wide McEnroe serve and used the lob to great effectiveness.
This appeared to throw McEnroe off, as he hit three consecutive double faults to blow his opportunities and go a set down.
With the pressure of being in-front of 17,000 people at Madison Square Gardens potentially starting to get to McEnroe, the strong willed teenager bounced back to win the second set and force a decider.
The tide would swing again and Ashe found himself 4-1 up and just two games away from a historic victory.
Despite the score tightening, Ashe had two match points on McEnroe’s serve at 4-5 15-40, but once again the 19-year-old held strong.
McEnroe’s resilience paid off, as he fought back to beat Ashe, 6(5)-7 6-3 7-5, to become the youngest ever winner of the Masters Cup.
| Stage of 1978 Masters | John McEnroe’s Result |
| Round-robin | McEnroe beat Arthur Ashe, 6-3 6-1 |
| Round-robin | McEnroe beat Jimmy Connors, 7-5 3-0 (retired) |
| Round-robin | McEnroe beat Harold Solomon, 6-3 6-2 |
| Semi-final | McEnroe beat Eddie Dibbs, 6-1 6-4 |
| Final | McEnroe beat Arthur Ashe, 6(5)-7 6-3 7-5 |
When speaking after the match, McEnroe appeared as surprised as many inside the stadium at how the final had played out.
“I don’t know how I won the match,” said McEnroe.
Although Ashe was dealing with the disappointment of losing from match point up, he was very complimentary towards the player 16 years his junior.
“The situation calls for a certain kind of challenge, and he met it,” Ashe said about McEnroe. “What he had to do was compose himself and find out why he was winning and change his game if he was losing. That may be difficult for a 19‐year‐old who’s had coaching all his life.”
McEnroe is still the youngest winner of the ATP Finals to this day, and went onto two further titles in 1983 and 1984.
While they would never play against each other again, Ashe would become the USA Davis Cup captain after retiring in 1980, leading McEnroe and co to two titles in 1981 and 1982 before resigning in 1985.
John McEnroe pays tribute to Arthur Ashe at the opening of his US Open stadium in 1997
Ashe would unfortunately pass away in 1997 at just 49-years-old, with the first ever men’s singles champion at the US Open in the Open Era being subsequently honoured.
In 1997, the US Open opened the gates for the Arthur Ashe Stadium, which is still the biggest arena in the world that is used exclusively for tennis and can hold upto 23,771 spectators.
Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn won the first ever match on the Arthur Ashe Stadium on August 25, 1997, beating American Chanda Rubin.
This was followed up by the US Open debut of Venus Williams, who reached the final as a 17-year-old that year.
In the evening of that day, an opening ceremony for the Arthur Ashe Stadium was held and McEnroe paid tribute to the man being honoured in an emotional speech.
“And there’s Arthur Ashe, Arthur Ashe was by far and away the greatest ambassador we have had,” said McEnroe. “A very special athlete to anyone who ever competed against him, played doubles with him or played under him.
“He will always be remembered for his first US Open here, our first US Open played in 1968, Wimbledon ’75 for his great win over Jimmy Connors. I prefer to remember the time that he held the record for most individual victories for an American and he led us to two Davis Cup Championships as captain. Please, yes, yes (applause from the crowd).
“I think that was my greatest privilege in knowing Arthur, to know him as a teammate. He was as passionate about winning as they come, he didn’t show the way some of us may have shown it. We may not have always seen eye to eye, but we always set our sights on the same thing, a championship that brought us pride as a national team.
“Looking back now, no matter how you encountered Arthur he demanded and commanded respect, maybe that was because he was simply someone who let his racket do the talking on the court and whose actions off the court spoke volumes about what a fully realised human he could be.
“Later in this ceremony this court will be filled with many of his fellow champions, and though Arthur may not be standing here among us, we’ll take satisfaction in the fact that in this stadium and at this occasion time was taken to honor a man who embodied the best that tennis and sports in general can provide.”
While McEnroe did not compete on Arthur Ashe Stadium as a professional, he has played charity matches on the iconic court.
This includes last year when McEnroe played doubles with Djokovic against the pairing of Andre Agassi and Carlos Alcaraz.
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