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It's that time of the season again, when the top performing players assemble to compete in the ATP Finals. The year-end tournament will be held from November 13-20 in Turin this time around.
Defending champion Alexander Zverev was on track to make the cut once again, but an injury sustained at the French Open ended his season prematurely. Meanwhile World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz qualified, after a brilliant season, for his maiden appearance at the year-ending championships. Unfortunately, however, the teenager recently picked up an injury at the Paris Masters, which forced him to withdraw from the tournament.
Tennis legends Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal lead the eight-player contingent in this year's edition. The duo will be going head-to-head with a bunch of younger challengers.
The season is set to come to a close, but not without some exciting matches at the ATP Finals. Here's all the relevant information about the tournament:
What is the ATP Finals?
The ATP Finals has a long history, having started out as the Masters Grand Prix in 1970. Featuring the year's best performing players, the tournament went on in that format until 1989.
In 1990, however, the event underwent a transition. It was rebranded as the ATP Tour World Championships, which also awarded ranking points unlike before.
But from 1990 to 1999 there was another tournament with a similar format being held, known as the Grand Slam Cup. This rival event was organized by the ITF.
In 1999, the ATP and ITF came to an understanding and dissolved their respective tournaments to create the Tennis Masters Cup. This event ran from 2000-2008 and featured the season's top eight performing players.
In 2009 the tournament was renamed the ATP World Tour Finals, and it remained so until 2016. And since 2017, it has been known as the ATP Finals.
Roger Federer holds the record for most titles here, with six.
Venue
The 2022 edition of the tournament will take place at the Pala Alpitour in Turin, Italy.
Players
As usual, the players have been drawn into two separate groups. The green group consists of Rafael Nadal, Casper Ruud, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Taylor Fritz. The in-form Auger-Aliassime is expected to top the group, especially since his opponents are either struggling physically or lacking in form at the moment.
Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev comprise the red group. Apart from Rublev, each of the other three has won the title here.
Fans would be glad see to that Nadal and Djokovic aren't a part of the same group, and could possibly contest yet another final.
Schedule
The group-stage matches will be contested from November 13-18. There will be four matches each day, divided evenly across the afternoon and evening sessions. Each session will feature a singles and a doubles match.
The semifinals are scheduled for Saturday, November 19, with the singles matches starting at 2 pm and 9 pm local time. The championship round will be held on Sunday, November 20. First up would be the doubles final, at 4 pm, and that would be followed by the singles final at 7 pm.
The official tournament schedule for the 2022 ATP Finals can be accessed here.
Prize Money
The total prize money for this year's edition is $14,750,000, and there is a total of 1500 ranking points up for grabs. Here's a detailed breakdown of the prize money and points:
Where to watch
Viewers in the US, UK, India and Canada can watch the ATP Finals live on the following channels and sites:
USA: All matches will be broadcast on Tennis Channel.
UK: Fans in the UK can watch the proceedings live on Amazon Prime Video.
India: All matches will be telecast on Sports 18 & Voot.
Canada: Viewers in Canada can watch all the matches on TSN.
For more information regarding the broadcast of matches, click here.
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