2023 ATP Finals in Turin, Italy. History, Schedule, Favourites, Prediction

Italian city Turin has another opportunity to organize the season-ending finale to the men’s tennis season, where the top eight singles players and doubles teams will fight for the 2023 ATP Finals championship. The event is going to be packed with tennis superstars – Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Jannik Sinner, Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, and Holger Rune – who, at the present time, all together have qualified for the main event. This year, the tournament will be held in the Pala Alpitour arena for the third year. The arena hosted ice hockey games during the 2006 Olympics. The tournament is played on an indoor hard court. Turin is the host after a 12-year stint in London. Turin will host the event until 2025 and is the 15th city to host the ATP season finale, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2020.

The doubles teams are going to participate as well. In the meantime, Ivan Dodig/Austin Krajicek, Wesley Koolhof/Neal Skupski, and Rohan Bopanna/Matthew Ebden have secured their spots in the Turin field. Five positions remain up for grabs, with Marcel Granollers/Horacio Zeballos sitting in fourth position, followed by Maximo Gonzalez/Andres Molteni, Santiago Gonzalez/Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Rajeev Ram/Joe Salisbury, and Nathaniel Lammons/Jackson Withrow.

History and Format of the 2023 ATP Finals

In 2009, the championship changed its name to ATP World Tour Finals. The contest was held in London, O2 arena. The contract ran through 2013, and then they were constantly extending the contract. After a few years,  In 2017, the event was renamed the ATP Finals. The deal with the O2 Arena was extended to 2020, and in December 2018, the organizers announced that London, Manchester, Singapore, Tokyo, and Turin are on a shortlist of five cities, that as a result, cut an initial list of 40 cities to host the event. In April 2019, the ATP finally announced that Turin is going to be the host of the ATP Finals from 2021 to 2025.

In the current format, the champion can earn a maximum of 1,500 ranking points, but under one condition – if they go through the event as an undefeated champion. The tournament has two groups of four players/teams each and uses a round-robin format. The top two from each group advance to the knockout semi-finals, where the winners clash for the title.

Champions of the 2023 ATP Finals

The tournament dates to 1970. Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic hold the record for the most singles titles with six, while Peter Fleming and John McEnroe jointly hold the record for the most doubles titles – seven. Here is the list of all the singles champions in the 21st century.

ATP Finals Dates throughout the years and Cities

Many cities had the pleasure of organizing the event, and besides, here is the list of all the cities that contributed to this project:

Schedule and Prize Money

The full schedule of the ATP Finals in Turin consists of four stages. The first procedure is the group stage draw on the 9th of November, and from the 12th of November until the 17th of November – the group stage matches will be played, while the semi-finals will take place on the 18th of November. In addition, the grand final will emerge on the 19th of November.

The 2023 ATP Finals are yet to announce the prize money for this event. Lastly, the 2022 ATP Finals offered a record total prize of $14.75 million – the highest amount compared to any other non-Grand Slam event in tennis history. Novak Djokovic manoeuvred through the event undefeated, taking home $4,740,300, more than any other winner in tennis history – at any contest.

Paris Masters and favourites of the ATP Finals

Novak Djokovic is a clear favourite to win his second consecutive title, especially after his triumph last year when he has beaten Norwegian C. Ruud in the final. The Serbian player has recently won the 2023 Paris Masters, and this is horrible news to the young Spaniard megastar – C. Alcaraz, who had an upsetting Paris tournament, as he couldn’t keep up the pace in the second round against Roman Safiullin (ATP 39). On the positive side, you can still write that off to his young age, but on the other hand – he must step up.

In fact, the analogical thing happened with D. Medvedev, who suffered a defeat in the second round, but the opponent was much better – Grigor Dimitrov – the finalist of the 2023 Paris Masters. Mentioning the Italian J. Sinner, crazy things happened last Thursday. The fatigued Italian criticized the organizers for not giving him enough time to rest following an early morning finish in his previous match, and as a result, he withdrew from the tournament in a rare scheduling protest. A. Rublev and S. Tsitsipas are the two most misfortunate players after the ATP Paris competition, as they both lost in the semi-finals. A. Rublev prevailed against the champion N. Djokovic, meanwhile, S. Tsitsipas lost to Bulgarian G. Dimitrov. These losses are the reason, why numbers 5 and 6 in the ATP rankings will be starving to steal the trophy.

The last two competitors are the two-time champ Zverev and H. Rune, who both ended their run in Paris too soon, but looking at the opponents they had to face – S. Tsitsipas and N. Djokovic, you get an idea why the route ended that fast. Overall, the logical thing is not to make any predictions because these players can shine on any given night.

Predictions

Arguably, no player has been more impressive than N. Djokovic to finish the campaign, particularly considering the importance of all the matches. In general, N. Djokovic will most probably be going to win the trophy, while C. Alcaraz and D. Medvedev will struggle following a terrible exit in Paris, as their confidence levels are low now. Unquestionably, A. Zverev will use the experience to his advantage, because he won this tournament twice.

A. Rublev and S. Tsitsipas fought hard throughout their campaign in the capital of France, but different circumstances did not let them reach the goal. Even though they did not play in the final, they will be a duo to watch as they progress through the tournament. Other challengers must be ready to refrain from their pressure. Another 20-year-old in H. Rune wants to get on the winning track. He played his last final in Rome on the 21st of May. It was the ATP Masters 1000 Rome tournament, and he lost to number three in the world, Daniil Medvedev.

Summing up, Jannik Sinner is the biggest underdog, and seeing how he has acted on the court lately – these psychological weaknesses will prevent him from showing the best possible result. Young enthusiasm can have an impact, but when you compare him to C. Alcaraz or H. Rune, you understand you need to work harder if you want to beat the best tennis players on the planet Earth.

Interested in other games?

On the whole, if you are interested in other sports and betting games, read the rules of Texas Hold’em poker, checkers, roulette, padel tennis, and squash. Make sure to check out the 7bet blog as well – to find other sports topics.