The ATP Finals is back in Turin and so is the unusual format the ATP Tour adopts for its year-ending tournament, so The Tennis Gazette looks at everything you need to know.
Each year the ATP Tour concludes its calendar with the ATP Finals and this season marks the fourth straight visit that the best male tennis players on the planet have made to Italy. Just a handful of eight singles players plus eight doubles teams contend for glory at the ATP Finals.
Novak Djokovic is the reigning ATP Finals champion after the Serbian won his record seventh title in 2023. But a different name will end this year on a high as Djokovic withdrew from the 2024 ATP Finals to focus on his recovery from an injury, with Alex De Minaur taking the spot.
Jannik Sinner was the first men’s singles player to qualify for the 2024 ATP Finals, and will be the top seed, too. Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev, meanwhile, are the only previous winners of the ATP Finals to qualify for it in 2024, with Djokovic withdrawing from the event.
Rounding out the eight singles players at the 2024 ATP Finals are Carlos Alcaraz, Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev. A unique format also awaits the eight players who qualified for the ATP Finals, so The Tennis Gazette dives into the criteria to progress at the ATP Finals.
The 2024 ATP Finals adopts a round-robin format for the group stage
The 2024 ATP Finals begins with a round-robin group stage, before the format then matches a more traditional route with two semi-final games preceding the final. Players are drawn by their ATP world ranking to decide which of the two round-robin groups they will feature in.
Sinner will feature in Group A at the 2024 ATP Finals as the year-ending world No1, and No2 Zverev will contest Group B. The ATP Tour will then draw players in pairs with the first name chosen put in Group A to fill out the groups, with each facing the other three in their group.
READ MORE: All to know about the 2024 ATP Finals from dates and players to prize money
All players are drawn based on their world ranking, with Alcaraz and Medvedev first ranked three and four, followed by Fritz and Ruud before De Minaur and Rublev. The group winner then faces the runner-up from the opposing group during the semi-finals for the ATP Finals.
What criteria does the ATP Tour use to set the ATP Finals group stage positions?
A player’s win tally is the first criteria that can see them progress from the group stage into the ATP Finals semi-finals. Win all of your matches and you are through, lose and you must rely on others dropping games to stand a chance of taking one of the top two group places.
In the event of two players being tied, the ATP Tour will first use their number of matches played to decide who advances to the semi-finals. A 2-1 win-loss record also trumps a 2-0 record as the player contested one additional match through the round-robin group stage.
Should their records still match, the third criteria to advance from the group stage is their head-to-head record in the first phase of the ATP Finals. The ATP Tour also uses a head-to-head decider with a three-way tie after eliminating one player if they played fewer games.
If needed, the ATP Tour will also use the highest percentage of sets won, highest percentage of games won or lastly their world ranking ahead of the ATP Finals to decide a tie during the group stage. The tie-break criteria can be used to decide who progresses as a group winner.
Receive exclusive tennis news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
