The 2025 ATP Finals field was set at the last minute following Novak Djokovic’s eleventh-hour decision to withdraw from the tournament, and that resulted in some tweaks to the original groups.
The draw for the season-ending tournament in Turin was made on Thursday – three days before the official start of the event – with top seed Carlos Alcaraz, Djokovic, Taylor Fritz and Alex De Minaur drawn in the Jimmy Connors Group.
Jannik Sinner headlined the Bjorn Borg Group and he was joined by Alexander Zverev and Ben Shelton, while one other player was still to be confirmed as Felix Auger-Aliassime and Lorenzo Musetti were still battling it out for the final position.
The pre-match tournament photo shoot only featured six player who had already qualified with Djokovic still in action in Athens while the identity of the eighth player was unknown.
With Djokovic beating Musetti in the final of the Hellenic Championship, Auger-Aliassime then went into the Borg group as the final and eighth qualifier with the Italian taking one of the alternate spots alongside Alexander Bublik.
But seven-time ATP Finals champion Djokovic then threw a spanner in the works as he pulled out of the event due to a shoulder injury as he revealed the injury got worse during the ATP 250 event in Athens.
That meant Musetti got pumped into the main draw as he took Serbian’s position in the Connors group with their round-robin matches set for Monday.
There was no doubt that Djokovic was Alcaraz’s biggest rival as the former leads their head-to-head rivalry 5-4, but the Spaniard is 4-1 against Fritz and 4-0 against De Minaur.
With the 24-time Grand Slam winner dropping out, Alcaraz has a winning record against all his rivals as he is 4-1 against Musetti.
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Sinner is 5-4 against Zverev, 7-1 against Shelton and 3-2 against Auger-Aliassime.
But with Musetti moving up, Bublik took his spot as the first alternate, opening up a second alternate spot with Casper Ruud next in line, but there were doubts over his participation as he was already on holiday, resulting in fears the ATP might have to scramble to find another player to fill the slot.
However, the world No 12’s manager Tina Falster has confirmed to Norway’s NTB that he has accepted the position and will soon make his way to Turin.
Of course, the fact that players earn $155,000 as an alternate is a big lure while there is always the possibility that one of the top eight could withdraw, meaning they would step up and earn more money.
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