The ATP season comes to an end over the next week or so when the leading eight available players of 2022 head to Turin for the Nitto ATP World Tour Finals, the showpiece occasion to round off a strong campaign.
Alexander Zverev took this title down in what was the first year in Turin in 2021 but the injury he sustained at the French Open put paid to any chance he had of being able to defend the title so we are guaranteed a different winner here.
Recent Winners
2021 – Alexander Zverev
2020 – Daniil Medvedev
2019 – Stefanos Tsitsipas
2018 – Alexander Zverev
2017 – Grigor Dimitrov
2016 – Andy Murray
2015 – Novak Djokovic
2014 – Novak Djokovic
2013 – Novak Djokovic
2012 – Novak Djokovic
The Format
We have already had the draw for the singles and doubles events which have seen the eight players and teams put into two groups of four for the opening round. That sees each player or pair playing the other three in their group. At the end of that stage the top two in each group move into the semi-finals where the winner of one group plays the runner up of the other one. The two winning semi-finalists meet in the final for the title on the second Sunday of the event. Each singles match is the best of three sets with a tiebreak in the decider while the doubles are the best of three sets with the third set being a match tiebreak.
Green Group
With Carlos Alcaraz not able to take his place in the tournament, Rafael Nadal is the number one seed this week and he is the top dog in the Green Group as a result of that. The Australian Open and French Open champion has only played 11 tournaments this year so he could be a little undercooked. The three other players in this section will hope that is the case. The man Nadal beat in the French Open final, Casper Ruud is the next highest player in the group in terms of the world rankings. The other two men on show in the Green Group are debutants at the ATP World Tour Finals. They are Felix Auger-Aliassime who has won five titles this season and the Indian Wells champion Taylor Fritz.
Red Group
Stefanos Tsitsipas was the man who claimed the number two seed after Alcaraz withdrew and as such he is the top seed in the Red Group, although many will look at Novak Djokovic as the top dog given that he got into the event having played just 10 tournaments all season, four of which he won which is the joint most of anyone in the group. This is an absolutely loaded group because the other two men in it are the Russian pair of Daniil Medvedev, world number one for so much of the year, and Andrey Rublev who himself has four titles to his name in 2022.
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Doubles
As ever one of the best things about this tournament is the fact that the top doubles teams get the platform to showcase their stuff as well and we have the eight leading pairs from 2022 taking to the court this week. The overwhelming number one seeds are Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski but they will know you have to go back to 2014 for the last time the top seeds hoisted the trophy above their heads at the end of the tournament. That will keep the other seven pairs interested.
The number two seeds this week are Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram with the French Open champions Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer the third seeds. The other five teams involved in this tournament are Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic, Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek, Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara, Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos and the Australian Open champions from right back at the beginning of the season in Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Singles Betting
You would have to say that there looks to be two tournaments in one in this competition with the Red Group absolutely stacked and question marks over so many in the Green Group but picking who will come out of the Red Group is a mission within itself so I’m happy to take someone in the Green Group and that player is the French Open and US Open finalist Casper Ruud, a player who made the semi-finals on debut here a year ago and is clearly a better player on the big stage now.
It is fair to say that Ruud isn’t coming into this tournament in the best of form but he isn’t the first person to struggle after losing an epic Grand Slam final and won’t be the last but he is in a group with a couple of debutants who might need a match or two to figure out the surroundings and the main seed in his section is Rafael Nadal over whom there are always fitness concerns and whose game he knows well from all the practicing he has done with him anyway. 16/1 on Ruud to go one better than last year feels like a big price.
Doubles Betting
Number one seeds don’t tend to have the best record in this tournament but I think Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski could change all that this week. They head into the event off the back of winning in Paris last week, their seventh title of an outrageously good 2022. The negative for the Dutch-Brit combo is that they are in a group with three seriously good pairings but those three might all be thinking about who will come second to Koolhof and Skupski.
Koolhof won this title alongside Nikola Mektic in 2020 but then didn’t qualify last year so he’ll be eager to keep his run in the tournament in order. Skupski appears for the first time alongside the Dutchman but they have been such a good pairing they will take all the beating. You can make a case for a good three or four other pairs, not least Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis but if consistency over the course of the year is rewarded then the number one seeds will end an eight-year wait for the main pairing to get their hands on this title.
Tips
Back C.Ruud to win ATP World Tour Finals (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Boylesports (1/3 1-2)
Back him here:
Back W.Koolhof & N.Skupski to win ATP World Tour Finals Doubles (e/w) for a 2/10 stake at 7.00 with William Hill (1/3 1-2)
Back them here:
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