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The 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals is all set to kick start from the 5th of November in the Italian city of Milano. The tournament will feature the eight best players in the men's tennis battle for the supremacy and become the next big star. The players, all below the age of 21 are ranked in the top 100 and selected based on their performance in the 2019 ATP Tour.
After PalaLido hosted the first two editions, the tournament has been moved to Fiera Milano for this year's edition. Starting from the 5th, the event will go on till the 9th of November.
All the eight players have been divided into two groups of four each, with the two top-ranked players headlining each group. Last year's runner up and current World No.18 Alex De Minaur is leading the Group A, while Frances Tiafoe leads Group B.
Defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas withdrew from the event after he made it to the big leagues at the 2019 ATP Finals after breaking into the top 10 rankings.
Group A Preview
Top seed De Minaur has been drawn with Casper Ruud, Miomir Kecmanovic and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the Group A. Fokina came as a replacement for Canada's Dennis Shapovalov after the runner up at the Paris Masters 2019 withdrew from the tournament earlier last week.
Minuar enters the tournament as the favourite and is the most decorated youngster in the tournament. The Australian has had an impressive 2019 with his first three ATP titles coming in this year at Sydney, Atlanta and Zhuhai. His only loss in an ATP final came at Basel Indoors against Roger Federer.
Having missed two months of the tour due to an injury, Alex made his way into the top 20 rankings for the first time in his career and reached a career-best of 18th rank. He is set to meet the three opponents in the group for the first time in his career.
Rudd, Kecmanovic and Davidovich Fokina are making their debut at the event this year. Rudd entered the top 100 rankings after he reached the semifinal of the 2019 Brasil Open. He reached his first ATP tour final at U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, becoming only the second Norwegian male player to do so after his father Christian Ruud. Casper reached the third round of the 2019 French Open but lost to Roger Federer.
20-year old Serbian Miomir Kecmanović won his first Grand Slam match at the French Open 2019 after he defeated Denis Kudla. However, he did not go past the second round and at the 2019 Antalya Open, Kecmanovic reached his first ATP finals but lost to Lorenzo Sonego in a hard-fought three-setter.
Davidovich Fokina won two Challenger Tour titles this year, with his best result in the ATP tour coming at the 2019 Estoril Open when he reached the semifinals, defeating Gaël Monfils and Taylor Fritz along the way.
Group B Preview
Frances Tiafoe is joined by Ugo Humbert, Mikael Ymer and Jannik Sinner in the Group B of the event, in a draw that is not dominated by one single player. Tiafoe ranked 47th in the world could not go past the round-robin matches last year and has come back strong as the second seed in this year's edition.
The US player started his year by making it to the quarter-finals of the 2019 Australian Open. It was a first quarter-final appearance for Tiafoe in a Grand Slam event. He has a win-loss record of 21-25 this year but has not picked up a title. In the recently concluded Paris Master 1000, Tiafoe exited in the first round after a loss against Talor Fritz.
Humbert has managed to win 16 tour level matches this season and reached a career-high ranking of 46. He is currently ranked 56 and has won three Challenger events at Cherbourg, Istanbul, and Brest.
Ymer reached six Challenger tour finals this year and went on to win four of them. The Swedish player's most recent victory came at Mouilleron-le-Captif, France which was his fourth title of the year.
Sinner will enjoy the support of the home crowd in Milan and will be a crowd favourite to win the finals. He will be coming into this competition with some confidence, having defeated his groupmate Tiafoe in the quarterfinals of the European Open in October. Within one month, the Italian also managed to make it to the top 100 rankings and reached his best rank of 95.
Predictions
Group A could see Alex De Minaur top the group, while Casper Rudd could take up the second spot.
From Group B, Frances Tiafoe and Ugo Humbert could reach the next round.
Here is all you need to know about Next Generation ATP Finals 2019
Tournament Name - Next Gen ATP Finals
Category - ATP Tour
Location - Milan, Italy
Duration - 5-9 November
Prize Money - US$1,400,000
Where to watch Next Gen ATP Finals 2019 Live in India
The Next Gen ATP Finals will not be telecasted in India.
Next Gen ATP Finals live stream details
The event can be watched live on Tennis TV with a paid subscription.
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