The Next Gen ATP Finals will get underway later this month, with the future stars of the sport seeking the title in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Last year’s winner, Joao Fonseca, withdrew from the tournament due to an ongoing injury, creating a golden opportunity for young US star Learner Tien this time around, who fell to the Brazilian in the 2024 final.
Though it does not always predict who will go on to be the next big star in men’s tennis, the Next Gen ATP Finals have seen winners such as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
In 2018, former world number three Stefanos Tsitsipas emerged victorious at the competition, prior to his breakthrough on the tour.
Tsitsipas beat Alex de Minaur in the final to hoist the trophy, but admitted after the match that he found the structure of the tournament ‘confusing’.
Stefanos Tsitsipas’ verdict on the rule changes at the event
The Next Gen ATP Finals features a best-of-five sets layout, but players only need to win four games in order to win the set.
Additionally, there is no advantage scoring, meaning the winner of the first point on deuce takes the game.
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In the 2018 edition specifically, lets on serve were counted as ‘in’.
After winning the tournament that year, Tsitsipas was asked what he thinks of the Next Gen ATP Finals’ layout.
He replied: “I mean, I won the tournament, so what do you expect me to say? I hate it? (Laughing.)
“I won the tournament with these rules. To be honest with you, I’m confused myself. I don’t really know what I liked and what I didn’t like.
“Again, the games are very stressful. Obviously, there’s no advantage, so you need to be twice as concentrated.
“But, I mean, I love those rules because I won. That’s the only thing I can say. I love those rules. I think for big servers it’s a good thing.
“It gives you more opportunities to break, to fight back. Games are shorter, but still, if you manage to hold at 40-All when your opponent is serving, there’s a big chance of you breaking.
“No-let rule, I mean, yeah, we didn’t have problems with it this week.”
Players were also given headsets to use to communicate with their coach, which Tsitsipas was not a fan of.
He said: “The headset, I’m not a big fan of it, but, yeah, you could see from the reaction yesterday (smiling).
“What else? Live Hawk-Eye was exciting this week. It was very, very good. No mistakes. Very accurate. Very responsive. Yeah, just much better than the human eye. So I love the live Hawk-Eye.
“Hopefully, it can be put in more events in the future and be the, let’s say, thing that’s going to be, yeah, the innovation of the game.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas’ season after winning the Next Gen ATP Finals
After winning the Next Gen ATP Finals in 2018, Tsitsipas talked about his next goal on the tour.
He said: “The next step is doing good and playing well in Grand Slams, I mean, where all the points are. Big events. Doing well in most of the tournaments that I’m going to play next year.
“My focus will be on Masters and Grand Slams. I’m going to try to pull out my best game there. Obviously it’s going to be tough. Other players want the same thing.
“Refresh and come to enter into 2019 stronger and better, just a better Stefanos than 2018.”
The 1% Club – Tennis Edition
Tsitsipas’ 2019 season went very well, with the Greek star securing three tour-level titles, including the year-end ATP Finals.
He also reached the semifinals of the Australian, which marked his best Grand Slam finish at the time, but he lost to Rafael Nadal in a heavy straight-sets defeat.
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