The official draw of the Next Gen ATP Finals was held last weekend in Jeddah.
French top seed Arthur Fils will be joined in Green Group by Dominic Stricker, Flavio Cobolli and Luca Nardi.
Luca Van Assche lead Red Group, which also features Alex Michelsen, Hamad Medjedovic and Abdullah Shelbayh.
The Next Gen Finals will take place at King Abdullah Sports City.
Green Group:
Stricker returns to the Next Gen Finals for the second consecutive season after after reaching the semifinals in last year’s edition held in Milan.
Stricker completed a perfect 3-0 round-robin campaign at last year’s edition of the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan., but he was beaten by Jiri Lehecka in the semifinals. The Swiss player qualified at the last three Grand Slam tournaments this season and reached the fourth round at the US Open last September after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in five sets. He also won two ATP Challenger tournaments in Rovereto and Prague.
Stricker had his first practice session with his fellow competitor Arthur Fils on Saturday in Jeddah.
Dominic Stricker: “It’s a great arena. It felt really good from the beginning onwards. I was at this event last year, so it’s great to come back. It’s a super event. Everything is organized well. I had a great practice with Arthur Fils. I have been here once before. I was excited to come here again. I really I liked it the time I was here before, so I hope I can enjoy my stay here. It’s my first time in this stadium, but it looks great and feels great. The court feels good. Everything looks really good so far”.
Fils enters the Jeddah Next Gen Finals with a career-high of world number 36. The Frenchman won his first title in Lyon and reached the final in Antwerp where he finished runner-up to Alexander Bublik. He also lost to Alexander Zverev in the semifinal of the Hamburg ATP 500 tournament and won two ATP Challenger titles in Oeiras and Quimper.
Cobolli and Nardi have been drawn in the same group joining Fils and Stricker. Cobolli has reached the top 100 and won the ATP Challenger tournament in Lisbon and reached the final in Olbia.
Nardi will clash against Fils in the opening Green Group match on Tuesday. Nardi, was an alternate at the 2022 edition of the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, won the ATP Challenger title in Matsuyama earlier this month and reached the semifinals in Kobe and the quarter finals in Yokohama. Last year he won the ATP Challenger in Mallorca and lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Round of 16 in Astana.
Red Group:
Van Assche will take on Jordanian Next Gen star Abdullah Shelbayh in the evening session. Van Assche reached the quarter finals at the ATP tournaments in Hamburg and Metz. Van Assche beat Stan Wawrinka to earn his second ATP Tour match in Banja Luka in 2023 before losing to Novak Djokovic in three sets.
Shelbayh became the first Arab player to win an ATP Challenger tournament in Charleston and lost to Lorenzo Sonego in the Round of 16 in Metz. He was the first player from Jordan to play an ATP Tour main draw match in Doha last February and the first player from his country to win a match on the ATP Tour in Banja Luka last April. Shelbayh attended the University of Florida for one year. He competed on the same team as Ben Shelton and under the tutelage of Shelton’s father Bryan Shelton.
Alex Michelsen will face Hamad Medjedovic in the second evening session match. Michelsen finished runner-up to Adrian Mannarino in the final in Newport and won nine of the ten matches. The US player won the ATP Challenger in Knoxville beating Denis Kudla.
Medjedovic won three ATP Challenger Tour titles this year in Szekesfehrvar, Mauthausen and Mallorca and reached the semifinal in Gstaad. The Serbian player is coached by former world number 12 Viktor Troicki and is aiming to follow in the footsteps of Serbian tennis legends Novak Djokovic, Janko Tipasericic and Viktor Troicki. Hamad Medjedovic:
“It was a big thing for sure growing up, having so many good players in our country. I remember starting to watch tennis when I was a kid. We had Novak Djokovic, Viktor Troicki and Janko Tipsarevic and they were so good. I remember watching them constantly. As a kid it gave me a lot of motivation to start playing tennis and then to become one of them because I saw that they could do it. They are coming from a small country, same as me, and it gave a me a lot of motivation and self-belief that I could do it as well”.
