The Nitto ATP Finals is back, marking the end of another season of elite men's tennis.
The top eight of the men's ATP World Rankings will compete in Turin, Italy over the next week. Players must navigate a round-robin, in two groups of four, with the top two players in each group advancing to the semi-finals.
The favourite is, of course, Novak Djokovic (11/8). After his victory at the Paris Masters - his 40th Masters title – he will almost certainly end the season as the world number one, ahead of young Spanish starlet Carlos Alcaraz (7/2) by 1,490 ranking points.
With 1,500 points available to an undefeated winner of the ATP finals, Djokovic needs only one win at the tournament to secure the top spot. In a straight knockout tournament that means there might have been a chance for Alcaraz to supersede the Serb, but with Djokovic guaranteed at least three games he has effectively already secured his position at the helm of world tennis.
That position looked under serious threat earlier in the season, with the up-start Alcaraz coming into his own in 2023. The Spaniard's victory at Wimbledon following an epic final battle with Djokovic felt like a sliding doors moment, but the 36-year-old has doubled down to end the season in exasperatingly good form.
He went on to win the Cincinnati Masters over the Spaniard, before claiming his 24th Grand Slam title at the US Open and closing out the regular season with the Paris Masters.
With six ATP Finals titles to his name, he is joint with Roger Federer for the most victories in the season-ending competition and so there is extra motivation for the Serb as he looks to make even more history by claiming an unmatched seventh win.
Djokovic (4/7 to win group) has been drawn alongside Jannik Sinner (11/4), Stefanos Tsitsipas (13/2) and Holger Rune 10/1) in the Green Group
Alcaraz will be seen as the main competition, and the hope for Tennis fans around the world will surely be for another sensational clash between the two in the final to close out 2023.
But since Wimbledon, his form has been off. After his loss to Djokovic in the Cincinnati final, he was knocked out of the US Open in the semi-final by Daniil Medvedev (6/1), at the China Open by Sinner (5/1) and in the fourth round of the Shanghai Masters by 18th seed Grigor Dimitrov and in the second round of Paris by qualifier Roman Safiullin.
Medvedev and Sinner will both fancy their chances, as they vie with Alcaraz to be seen as the leading candidate to usurp Djokovic when he does (eventually) down his racket.
22-year-old Sinner is a more exciting and raw talent, but the older Russian is a more consistent player and he has reached finals in the US Open, China Open and Vienna Open in recent months - but it was Sinner pipped him in the latter two.
The Red Group pits Alcaraz (5/4 to win the group) against Medvedev (2/1), Andrey Rublev (4/1) and Alexander Zverez (5/1)
