Thursday’s draw in Turin, Italy unveiled the singles and doubles groups for the ATP Finals. It also revealed that Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will be in different groups which means that the two legends cannot meet before the semifinals at the prestigious year-end championship which gets underway this weekend.
Djokovic is in the Red Group alongside Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev, and Andrey Rublev. As for Nadal, he is in the Green Group with Casper Ruud, Montreal’s Félix Auger-Aliassime, and Taylor Fritz. The Spaniard, this year’s Australian Open and Roland Garros champion, will be looking to capture his first ATP Finals title. It’s one of the only major tournaments he has yet to win during his illustrious career. On the flip side, Wimbledon winner Djokovic will attempt to make history in Turin. The five-time champion can tie Roger Federer’s record of six titles at the season finale. Medvedev and Tsitsipas are also former finalists at the event.
Fresh off a dominant indoor hard court season during which he won three consecutive titles and 16 straight matches, Auger-Aliassime is gearing up for his ATP Finals debut and will be heading in as one of the tournament favourites considering the form he is in. The 22-year-old, who achieved a career-best ranking of no. 6 after reaching the semifinals of the Paris Masters, is the first Canadian man to qualify for the year-end championships in singles since the feat was first accomplished by Milos Raonic in 2016. His 56 victories in 2022 is the third-highest tally on tour behind only World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, who is missing the ATP Finals due to injury, and Tsitsipas. He’ll open his title bid against Ruud on Sunday.
The doubles draw will be highlighted by the Aussie duo of Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios as well as the top-ranked team of Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski who lifted the trophy at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers. All the matches at the ATP Finals can be seen on TSN and RDS from November 13-20.
