Atp Finals in Turin, who are the eight masters – Corriere.it

The best, Carlos Alcaraz, is not there: in the pitfalls of injuries that have cut the legs of half of Italy (Berrettini holder and Sinner reserve-player last year), at the sunset of the season of illnesses and retirements (Federer and Serena Williams, without forgetting Barty at 26 years old) is also collapsed the prodigious 19-year-old from Murcia, # 1 after tearing the tray of burgers and fries in New York. There is, however, unlike in 2022, the ex niño who has recently become the father of a baby of the same name, the Spaniard who was already top 100 when Alcaraz was born (2003): Rafa Nadal leads to Turinhome of the ATP Finals for the second of five consecutive years, the anomaly of a champion who has won everything, except the Master (17th qualification, 11th participation, last final in 2013 in London, lost by Djokovic).

They are called Atp Finals, for Masters friends, they provide a check for 4,740,300 dollars (no, there is no typo) for the undefeated king, 2,200,400 for the champion who leaves a group match on the road (for the purists, a horror), it is no coincidence that the eight masters who yesterday walked on the blue carpet spread out in Piazza San Carlo had such a big smile. “Happy to be there,” said Nadal who has two defeats behind him in his suitcase, the points at stake allow Rafa or Stefanos Tsitsipas to take the throne of Alcaraz at the end of the tournament, certainly the company is needed. But the man of the 22 Slam (record), if healthy and fit, knows no impossible missions and Tsitsipas, back from a season of ups and downs, knows the way to victory: the 2019 Master spoke Greek on the banks of the Thames.

The blue is missing, and for us it makes all the difference in the worldHowever, this year a good mix of veterans, young people and rookies has landed on the banks of the Po, the contrast of styles will not be lacking. In the absence of Zverev, defending champion, in addition to Nadal, the undertow of the restoration proposes Novak Djokovic, the former number one who has in mind to equal the primacy of Federer, the master of masters who joined six of the ATP Finals, from 2003 to 2011, and who against common sense has no intention of showing up in Turin , unlike other recent retirees of the Tour (Tsonga, Robredo, Simon, Del Potro, Anderson). There is the young American who inaugurated the small revolution in the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells – Taylor Fritz from San Diego, California -, when we still did not know that the Grand Slams would be shared by the dinosaurs (Nadal in Australia and Paris, Djokovic in Wimbledon) and the next Next Gen (Alcaraz in Flushing); and there is the Danish talent who won the last of the tournaments under the Majors, Paris Bercy beating the Djoker: Holger Rune, reserve (with Hurkacz) but still briefly. It is an undecided tennis, in short, between the past and the future but with a great desire for renewal, the sport that from tomorrow will try to fill the Pala Alpitour (presales at full speed) even without Berrettini and Sinner, the added value of 2021 that received the door in the face from the Finals will try to redeem himself in the Davis Cup.

It is right that the Norwegian Casper Ruud is theretwice in the Grand Slam final this year, stopped by his uncle and nephew (Nadal in Paris, Alcaraz in New York), the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassimefresh from three consecutive centers, and the two Russians stopped for the war by Wimbledon, Medvedev re 2020 and Rublevthe middle ground between the 36 years of Nadal and the 22 of Aliassime, in a generational smoothie that can only be good for the movement.

Ruud and Aliassime start, tomorrow at 2 pm, in the green group with Nadal and Fritz; Monday evening Djokovic-Tsitsipas, in the red group with the two ruski. Everything conspires for an old-fashioned final, like 59 other times (the previous ones between Rafa and the Djoker), youngsters permitting.