After the withdrawal of Carlos Alcaraz from the Nitto ATP Finals, the doors have opened for two players to end 2022 as world No.1.
19-year-old Alcaraz ascended to the top of the Pepperstone ATP rankings on September 12th following his triumph at the US Open and has held the position ever since. The Spaniard, who has won five Tour titles this season, has been forced to pull out of next week’s event in Turin due to an abdominal injury. As a result, his hopes of becoming the year-end No.1 depend on the performances of two of his rivals.
Rafael Nadal, who has already held the No.1 position for 209 weeks, is 1000 points behind Alcaraz in the rankings. At the ATP Finals, up to 1500 points are up for grabs should a player win the title without losing a match. There are two scenarios where Nadal can reach the top spot but he must reach at least the final to do so.
The most straightforward route for the 36-year-old is winning the tournament. Although Nadal is yet to win the ATP Finals in his career with this year being his 11th appearance at the event. If he finishes runner-up with a 4-1 record, he could still become world No.1 as long as Stefanos Tsitsipas doesn’t go 5-0.
“I will not fight anymore to be No. 1,” Nadal recently told reporters at the Paris Masters where he lost his opening match to Tommy Paul.
“I did in the past. I achieved that goal a couple of times in my career and I have been very, very happy and proud about achieving that.
“But I am in a moment of my tennis career that I don’t fight to be No. 1.”
Tsitsipas, who is yet to crack the top two, must win the title without losing a match if he wishes to become the 29th player in ATP Tour history to reach No.1. The Greek did win the ATP Finals in 2019 with a 4-1 record. However, in the two following years, he failed to go beyond the group stages. He was forced to quit the tournament last year due to injury.
“I unfortunately played just one match and I didn’t really have the opportunity to show my real game out there,” the 24-year-old told atptour.com. “I’m really excited to be playing in Italy. The Italians are really passionate when it comes to tennis. They put a lot of their energy out on the courts and the stadiums. They have a great culture in tennis the last couple of years.
“They’ve always loved my game, they’ve always greeted me very nicely. They have a sort of different aura when it comes to the game, which I appreciate a lot.”
Tsitsipas has won 60 matches so far this year which is more than any other player who is playing at the ATP Finals.
As the top two seeds, Nadal and Tsitsipas have been drawn into opposite groups. Nadal will play Casper Ruud, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Taylor Fritz in the round-robin stage. Meanwhile, Tsitsipas faces five-time champion Novak Djokovic, Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev. The top two players from each group will progress to the semi-finals.
The ATP Finals will begin on Sunday.
