Alcaraz Avoids Sinner in ATP Finals

Carlos Alcaraz has been relatively lucky in the ATP Finals group stage draw, avoiding Jannik Sinner, the 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 group.

The tournament, which runs from November 13 to 20, gathers the year's top eight players but has been diminished by the absence of Novak Djokovic, who cited an injury to end his 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 claimed the title. The Australian repeated his victory the following year when Federer debuted, who ended his career with six titles in this event, only behind Djokovic's seven.

Alcaraz faces the penultimate tournament of the season in Turin after disappointments at the Shanghai Masters 1000, where he reached the quarterfinals, and the Paris-Bercy, where he fell in the second round. The Spaniard reached the semifinals last year but was crushed by Djokovic in that round.

Unlike 2023, Alcaraz, who has been training in the Italian city for a couple of days, seems more rested and in better condition after taking breaks following the Davis Cup group stage and the Shanghai tournament, where he only played the Saudi Arabia exhibition.

These mini-vacations have helped Alcaraz arrive in shape for an exciting November, with his first real chance to be crowned as a master and the Davis Cup in Malaga, where he will bid farewell to the legend Rafael Nadal.

The draw, held this Thursday, has been kind to the Spaniard, sparing him from facing Sinner, who will end the season as the world number one regardless of the tournament's outcome. The Italian returns to competition in Turin after missing 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 face Medvedev, whom he has beaten in seven of their last eight encounters, Fritz, whom he leads 2-1 in head-to-head, and De Minaur, whom he has defeated in all seven meetings.

Alcaraz will meet Zverev, the recent Paris-Bercy winner and world number two. The German is the group's main rival and has an equal head-to-head record of five with the Spaniard, but the last two matches, Roland Garros and Indian Wells, have gone Alcaraz's way.

He has mastered Ruud with four wins in four encounters, while with Rublev, he has played two matches, winning in this same venue in 2023 and losing in the Madrid Masters 1000 this year.

Alcaraz aims for a prize pool of 14 million euros, with the undefeated tournament winner, meaning winning all five matches, could claim 4.4 million. This is the largest official prize of the season, although the Saudi Arabia exhibition, which featured Alcaraz, Sinner, and Djokovic, awarded nearly 7 million to the Italian, who won by defeating Medvedev and Alcaraz.

The undefeated winner also earns 1,500 points, with which Alcaraz could return to world number two and remain far from a Sinner who, at the tournament's end, will stay above 10,000 points in the ATP rankings.