The 2025 Nitto ATP Finals kick off on Sunday in Turin, where the ATP Tour’s greatest champions will face off in the prestigious season finale. Two singles clashes and a doubles match open the show on Day 1 at the Inalpi Arena.
Carlos Alcaraz takes on Alex de Minaur in the Jimmy Connors Group before Alexander Zverev and Ben Shelton meet in the Bjorn Borg Group final on Sunday evening.
A doubles match pitting defending champions Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz against Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos will open the day’s action, with top seeds Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool meeting home favorites Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori to start the night session.
[1] Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) against… [7] Alex de Minaur (AUS)
While Alcaraz enters Turin at No. 2 in the PIF ATP Rankings, behind Jannik Sinner, he earned the top seed with his first-place finish in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin. Likewise, the Spaniard has the upper hand in the battle for ATP year-end number 1 presented by PIF awards. He must reach the final with at least one round-robin win or sweep his round-robin matches to guarantee himself the prize for a second time (2022).
“I think doing well in this tournament, winning games here, goes hand in hand with finishing the year as No. 1,” Alcaraz said of his double goal in Turin. “It’s kind of the same motivation. They stick together. I think it’s going to be a very big and important week.”
After a shock opening-round defeat to Cameron Norrie in Paris – a result that opened the door for Sinner to reclaim the No. 1 spot – Alcaraz is aiming for a return to winning ways against De Minaur, who is making his second straight appearance in the Nitto ATP Finals. On paper it’s an auspicious start for the top seed and a nightmare assignment for the Australian: Alcaraz are a perfect 4-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, with wins this season in Rotterdam and Barcelona.
But De Minaur enters the event with the most hard court wins of any player this season thanks to his 42-14 record on the surfaces, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index. His 55 overall wins for the year are also a personal best, beating his previous record of 48.
“Overall I’m very happy with the year I’ve had. I think I’ve shown very good consistency and I’ve been able to play good tennis on this surface,” said the Australian, who is looking for his first victory in the Nitto ATP Finals match in his second appearance in Turin.
“Now that I look at the upcoming competition, I think we have a very difficult group. We are all very capable of playing good tennis and making life difficult for each other.”
De Minaur, one of the game’s best retrievers, knows he can’t rely on his speed and defensive skills alone to pull off the upset. To have a chance at a puncher, the Australian will often have to land the first punch against the Spanish superstar, who has played just one match at tour level since early October.
[3] Alexander Zverev (GER) vs. [5] Ben Shelton (USA)
Only one man has defeated Zverev since mid-October, and it’s a man the German will face later in the group stages: Sinner, the same player who defeated Shelton in his most recent match. With the Italian looming, the Turin opener between two-time Nitto ATP Finals champion Zverev (2018, 2021) and Turin debutant Shelton holds greater significance for both competitors.
Just like Alcaraz vs. De Minaur leads the Lexus ATP Head2Head series between Zverev and Shelton at 4-0 for the higher seed. Shelton has not won a set in their three meetings this season, one on each of the ATP Tour’s three surfaces.
Zverev’s confidence will be further boosted by deep runs in his past two tournaments, a second-place finish in Vienna and a semi-final in Paris. Each of those runs included a third-set tiebreak victory against Jacob Fearnley and Daniil Medvedev.
Shelton reached the Paris quarterfinals in his most recent outing before eventual champion Sinner ended his run. There were concerns the American’s season would end prematurely after he retired from the US Open with a left shoulder injury, but the 23-year-old played three tournaments in October and showed signs of his best tennis. Before his defeat to Sinner in Paris, Shelton made his Turin debut with a 7-6(6), 6-3 victory against Andrey Rublev, who has appeared in the Nitto ATP Finals in each of the past five years.
Shelton hopes to round off his debut in Turin this week with another first: parallel to the battle between Sinner and Alcaraz for world number 1 in Turin, the battle between Shelton and Fritz for US number 1 will take place, an honor that Shelton briefly took from his compatriot in 2024. The left-hander has never finished a season as the best American on the PIF ATP rankings.
Double action
The Peter Fleming Group kicks off the doubles match in Turin. Defending champions Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz have the honor of opening the 2025 event with their match against third seeds Granollers and Zeballos, champions this season at Roland Garros and the US Open.
British toppers Cash and Glasspool, who want to expand their seven titles in the Tour this season (including Wimbledon), meet home favorites Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori. The Italians, who won four titles this year and reached the final of the Australian Open, will compete in Turin for the second year in a row.
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