ATP Finals Draw Puts Zverev With Shelton, Alcaraz With Medvedev

The draw for the Nitto ATP Finals was made in Turin on Thursday, November 12, and it split the season's last eight men into two groups named for two of the event's great champions. World No. 1 Alexander Zverev headlines the John McEnroe Group with Ben Shelton, Arthur Fils and Rafael Jodar. Carlos Alcaraz tops the Ivan Lendl Group with Daniil Medvedev, Flavio Cobolli and Frances Tiafoe.

Play runs from Sunday, November 15, through Sunday, November 22, at the Inalpi Arena, in the event's 57th edition and its sixth year in Turin. Each man plays the other three in his group, the top two in each group reach the semifinals, and the prize fund is a record $15.75 million, with an undefeated singles champion earning $5.171 million.

The field carries a genuine changing-of-the-guard edge. Zverev, the 2018 and 2021 champion, led the Race to Turin with 9,350 points, and Medvedev, the 2020 champion, is the only other former winner in the draw. Against them stand four first-time qualifiers: Cobolli, Fils, Tiafoe and Jodar, the 20-year-old Spaniard who took the last place when Alcaraz beat Taylor Fritz in the Paris Masters quarterfinals. Alcaraz arrives as the Paris champion, having beaten Shelton in that final on November 8, which puts the two finalists in opposite groups in Turin.

The cut line tells its own story. Jodar took the eighth and last place with 3,234 Race points, 64 ahead of Alex de Minaur, who needed one more win in Paris and lost to Tomas Martin Etcheverry. Taylor Fritz finished on 3,085 after losing his Paris quarterfinal to Alcaraz, and Novak Djokovic missed the Finals for the first time since 2017. The alternates' week in Turin is a watching brief unless somebody's body gives out.

The daily shape is set, too. Round-robin sessions run from Sunday through Friday, November 20, with an afternoon session from 11:30 a.m. local time and an evening session from 6 p.m., doubles first and singles after. The finals close the week on Sunday, November 22, the doubles at 3 p.m. and the singles at 6 p.m. local time.

The absence over the week is Jannik Sinner. The two-time defending champion ended his season on October 6 to treat a right knee injury, and his withdrawal turned Turin into an open race rather than a defense. Zverev and Alcaraz are separated as the top two seeds, so the draw's cleanest outcome is also its biggest one: the world No. 1 and the Paris champion meeting in the final on November 22, with Medvedev the man most likely to spoil it from Alcaraz's group.