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At the close of a standout season in which he won his first ATP Tour title in Lyon, Arthur Fils entered the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM at a career-high Pepperstone ATP Ranking of No. 36.

But what is the 19-year-old like off the court? ATPTour.com caught up with the Jeddah top seed for a Q&A that covered his post-tennis career plans, his favourite sports and a holiday adventure.

If you could have dinner with three people, who would they be and why?
Cristiano Ronaldo first, because for me he’s the best footballer who exists in the world. I would say also Michael Jordan, because I’ve watched him a lot. And, third, I’m going to say The Rock. 

So you'd say Ronaldo is better than Messi?
For me, yeah. My coach, Sergi Bruguera, loves Messi. So we have a little fight about it.

[ATP AWARDS]

Rafael Nadal announced on social media Friday that he will make his return in the first week of the 2024 season at the Brisbane International presented by Evie.

“Hello everyone. After a year away from competition, it’s time to come back,” Nadal said in Spanish in a video that has garnered millions of views. “It will be in Brisbane the first week of January. I’ll see you there.”

Two weeks ago the Spaniard confirmed that he would make his return. Now he knows where and when.

The former World No. 1 played two tournaments this year — the United Cup and Australian Open — before missing the rest of the season due to an injury to the iliopsoas muscle in his left leg, for which he later underwent surgery.

Nadal will compete in Brisbane for the second time. The lefty played the ATP 250 in 2017, when he advanced to the quarter-finals before losing to then-World No. 3 Milos Raonic in three sets.

Hamad Medjedovic and Dominic Stricker's maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting is set for Friday night in Jeddah, where the winner will advance to a championship-match clash against Arthur Fils at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM.

[3] Dominic Stricker (SUI) vs. [6] Hamad Medjedovic (SER)

While Stricker and Medjedovic are not countrymen, their relationship goes back many years to their early junior days.

“I’ve known Dominic for a long time,” Medjedovic said after beating Arab hope Abdullah Shelbayh to secure his semi-final place. “He’s a great player and a great guy obviously. I think it’s going to be a great match and I’m happy to be in the semis.”

The Serbian leads the Jeddah field in a number of key metrics on both serve and return, including aces (45), service games won (37 of 39, 95%) and points won against first serve (32%). Those numbers added up to a perfect 3-0 record and a first-place finish in the Red Group.

Stricker posted a 1-2 record in the Green Group and advanced with a better percentage of sets won (45%) than Italians Flavio Cobolli and Luca Nardi, who were also 1-2. While he has not sustained top form so far in Jeddah, he has the advantage of experience: The lone returning competitor at this year's Next Gen ATP Finals, Stricker also reached the semis last season in Milan. He has picked up considerable big-match experience since then, with a run to the US Open fourth round that helped him achieve a career-high Pepperstone ATP Ranking of No. 88 in October.

Hamad Medjedovic put himself in a commanding position in the Red Group by winning his first two matches at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM. On Thursday, he completed a perfect 3-0 group campaign to soar into the semi-finals in Jeddah.

The Serbian's 3-4(6), 4-2, 4-3(5), 4-2 victory against Abdullah Shelbayh earned him a first-place finish in the Red Group and also qualified Luca Van Assche at Shelbayh's expense. Entering the match, Medjedovic needed to win at least a set to advance to the semis, while Arab hope Shelbayh needed a victory in three or four sets.

“It was a great match. I played really good after the first set,” said Medjedovic in his on-court interview. “He’s a good friend of mine, he’s a very good player and obviously the crowd here loves him and I respect that. It was a pleasure to play in front of [the crowd].”

The semi-final stage is now set in Jeddah: As winner of the Red Group, Medjedovic will face Dominic Stricker on Friday. Van Assche, the second-place finisher in the Red Group, will meet Green Group winner Arthur Fils.

“I’ve known Dominic for a long time,” said Medjedovic. “He’s a great player and a great guy obviously. I think it’s going to be a great match and I’m happy to be in the semis.”

Arthur Fils has been in scintillating form this week at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM. Yet the top seed’s post-victory celebrations have been almost as eye-catching as his on-court prowess in Jeddah.

The 19-year-old has celebrated each of his three wins in Green Group at the 21-and-under season finale by performing Cristiano Ronaldo’s ‘Siu’ celebration inside King Abdullah’s Sports City. Fils is a long-time admirer of the Portuguese football star, who has played for Saudi Pro League team Al Nassr since January.

“I was a huge fan when I was young of Ronaldo,” Fils told ATPTour.com on Thursday after maintaining his perfect record at the 21-and-under event by beating Dominic Stricker. “Now it’s a little bit tough to follow the football [and Ronaldo], especially when he’s here. I’m really a fan of him and I know he is playing here in this country, so I’m really happy [to do it] when I win.”

Come for the victory, stay for the celebration ?@ArthurFils1 | #NextGenATPFinals pic.twitter.com/EUc7kZWpv0

The reference to Ronaldo’s connection with Saudi Arabia may have been obvious to many in the crowd when Fils celebrated. Yet the Frenchman later revealed an ulterior motive for emulating the Portuguese football legend, who formerly played for Spanish giants Real Madrid.

Jannik Sinner has capped his breathtaking finish to his banner 2023 season by leading Italy to its first Davis Cup title since 1976 after defeating Australian Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-0 in Malaga on Sunday night.

After saving three match points to defeat World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in Saturday’s semi-finals, Sinner converted the 1-0 lead provided by Matteo Arnaldi’s three-set win over Alexei Popyrin into a championship-clinching result with his crushing victory over De Minaur, whom he now leads 6-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

Following the US Open, Sinner won 20 of his last 22 matches of the season, a run that included ATP 500 titles in Beijing and Vienna, and a runner-up finish in the Nitto ATP Finals to Djokovic, whom he beat in an epic three-setter in group play in Turin.

Sinner, 22, finishes the year with a personal-best 64-15 record on the season and at a year-end career-high No. 4 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings..

Earlier in the day Arnaldi gave Italy a 1-0 lead after staring down eight break points in the deciding set against Popyrin.

Dominic Stricker, Alex Michelsen and Abdullah Shelbayh were among the world’s leading 21-and-under players getting a different view of the press conference room at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM Sunday. Instead of sitting behind the microphone answering questions, players perched in media seats while taking a briefing on the signature rules and innovations in play at the tournament, which will run 28 November-2 December at Jeddah's King Abdullah Sports City.

Stricker is the only member of the field who has played the event before, but even he will need to adapt to new conditions as the evolving event continues to serve as a testing ground for rule changes and innovation.

"No warm up will be interesting. Usually you have a few minutes to find your game, so this will be something different,” Stricker said.

"I like the new time rules with eight seconds between first and second serves and also 15 seconds between points when rallies are short. That's a good one because you can save a lot of time after those short points. Some players may think they need more time, but I feel it's a really good idea."

World No. 94 Alex Michelsen, who this time last year was around 600 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and celebrating Thanksgiving in California, said that he also was comfortable with the abbreviated time between first and second serves.

The 2023 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM begins on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, but first, the 21-and-under stars visited Al-Balad, the historic old town of Jeddah, for this year’s official group photo.

Ahead of the first ATP-sanctioned event to be held in Saudi Arabia, players took time to visit the historical sites in Al-Balad, which was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.

“We've had a really fun time,” said 19-year-old American Alex Michelsen. “Everyone's been having a lot of laughs. People were great and to see the old city was really, really cool."

Jordanian Abdullah Shelbayh received a wild card for the event. The Arab star enjoyed spending time with his competitors in Jeddah, where the players spent time exploring the local markets.

“It was exciting to do this with the players, they are pretty funny guys,” Shelbayh said. “It was good to spend some time together outside of competition.”

The Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM's arrival in Jeddah is set to inspire a generation of young Saudi tennis enthusiasts — and not least those who will be just metres from the action next week at King Abdullah Sports City.

The first ATP-sanctioned event ever to be held in Saudi Arabia will take place from 28 November-2 December. It will be a historic moment for tennis in the Gulf nation and promises to be a particularly memorable one for the 19-strong team of ballkids, aged between 10 and 15, who will be on hand to help ensure the event runs smoothly.

“I’m really excited. I play tennis five or six times a week, so I had ballboy training a couple of times a week too,” ballboy Sulaiman Ashoor told ATPTour.com on Saturday in Jeddah. “I have seen live tennis before at a tournament in Riyadh. I saw Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem. It was really fun. I like seeing the players up close because if they can do it, it means I can do it.”

Sulaiman’s sister Tala Ashoor is one of six ballgirls on the team. A keen tennis fan and player like her brother, Tala is ready to relish the experience of being on court with some of the world’s best young professional players.

“I’m really excited, it’s my first time being a ballkid, but I’m also nervous,” said Tala, who was asked to take part in training for the event via her tennis coach. "The training was a lot, but it’s fun. My friends and family will come to watch when I am on court."

The Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM are set to debut in Jeddah this coming week, with eight of the game's brightest young stars in the field.

Frenchmen Arthur Fils and Luca Van Assche, both 19, lead their respective round-robin groups, while Switzerland's Dominic Stricker returns to the innovative year-end event for the second straight year.

ATPTour.com breaks down five of the biggest storylines in Jeddah.

[SWEEPSTAKES]

1) Frenchmen In Front: The top-seeded Fils and second-seeded Van Assche will hope to live up to their billing in the Green Group and Red Group, respectively. Fils enters Jeddah at a career-high Pepperstone ATP Ranking of World No. 36, having followed a home-nation title in Lyon in May with a run to the Antwerp final last month. Van Assche won two ATP Challenger Tour singles title this season and travelled to Jeddah after two tournaments on home soil in Paris-Bercy and Metz.

The world's leading 21-and-under players Saturday night learned their group fate for the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM when the official draw was conducted in Jeddah.

Joining French top seed Arthur Fils, 19, in Green Group will be Dominic Stricker, Flavio Cobolli and Luca Nardi.

Fellow Frenchman Luca Van Assche, 19, heads Red Group, which will also feature Alex Michelsen, Hamad Medjedovic and Abdullah Shelbayh.

The Next Gen ATP Finals, the first ATP-sanctioned event ever to be held in Saudi Arabia, will be held 28 November-2 December at King Abdullah Sports City.

Green Group: Arthur Fils (1), Dominic Stricker (3), Flavio Cobolli (5), Luca Nardi (7).

Red Group: Luca Van Assche (2), Alex Michelsen (4), Hamad Medjedovic (6), Abdullah Shelbayh (8).

Less than a week after their meeting in the Nitto ATP Finals title match, Jannik Sinner scored swift revenge against Novak Djokovic on Saturday in the Davis Cup semi-finals.

In a 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 victory, the Italian saved three match points by escaping 0/40 at 4-5 in the final set and broke immediately after to seize control of the match in Malaga. Sinner's heroics keep Italy alive in the semi-final tie after Miomir Kecmanovic opened the day's play with a 6-7(7), 6-2, 6-1 victory against Lorenzo Musetti.

A decisive doubles rubber will now determine who meets Australia in Sunday's final.

'It was a roller coaster," Sinner said of his two-hour, 35-minute victory against the World No. 1. "I was starting off really well. Second set he played much better than me. Third set I tried to serve really well, and also on match points down I served well.

"Happy to still be in the competition. We were one point away from being out. Now we have a deciding doubles. We'll have to chat [to decide] who’s going to play. We will give our best shot against them. Let’s see what’s coming."

Dominic Stricker may have prior experience both of visiting Saudi Arabia and competing at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM, but the Swiss star was still impressed by his first visit to the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah.

Stricker stepped on court for his first practice session Saturday lunchtime in the Saudi coastal city, where the lefty hit with one of his fellow competitors at the 21-and-under event, Arthur Fils. The 21-year-old reached the semi-finals on his Next Gen ATP Finals debut in Milan in 2022 and is delighted to be back for a second campaign.

“It’s a great arena. It felt really good from the beginning onwards,” said Stricker after his practice. “I was at this event last year, so it’s great to come back. It’s a super event, everything is organised well. I arrived pretty late yesterday but had a great practice with Arthur.”

The lefty World No. 92 said he had settled quickly in Jeddah, where he will hope to cap a strong year during which he made his maiden fourth-round appearance at a major at the US Open and lifted two ATP Challenger Tour trophies.

“I’ve been here once before,” said Stricker of Saudi Arabia. “I was excited to come here again. I really liked it the time I was here before, so I hope I can enjoy my stay here. It’s my first time in this stadium, but it looks great and feels great. The court feels good, everything looks really good so far.”

Total distance is the foundational tracking metric for athletic performance defined by the overall quantity of work an athlete must undertake in order to excel at the highest levels of their sport.

Accumulating distance over the course of a match drains a competitor’s overall level of energy by fatiguing muscles and stressing the cardiovascular system. Within a tournament, total distance covered becomes most significant not on one specific day, but as a cumulative measure. For world-class athletes, handling high-distance loads in one match is not the primary challenge; rather, it’s the ability to sustain repeated exposure to high-distance matches in a condensed, one-week span and still produce peak performance.

Cumulative distance covered leading into semi-finals can be vastly different for two opponents. A disparity in the amount of distance covered in the previous rounds could result in an advantage for the fresher player. In 2021, Carlos Alcaraz came into the final having run close to 18 per cent less distance than Sebastian Korda. The following year the tables were turned for Brandon Nakashima. Nakashima came into the finals having run 19 per cent more distance in his first four matches than his opponent Jiri Lehecka.

In 2021, Lorenzo Musetti covered a distance of 2.48 km against Hugo Gaston, the most distance of any player in any match during the 21-and-under event in 2021. Gaston ran 2.28 km in the same match, the second-most distance of any match that year.

The Science Behind Workload in Tennis

Total distance is the primary metric that measures the overall volume of work by aggregating how much ground an athlete has covered. Mechanical workload is the secondary volume metric that aggregates the total amount of weighted accelerations and decelerations the athlete has performed. Using optical tracking systems, every instant of acceleration and deceleration performed by a player is categorised into one of three zones: low, medium or high.

Alex de Minaur has led Australia into its second consecutive Davis Cup final after dominating the serve of Finland's Emil Ruusuvuori in Malaga Friday.

De Minaur earned 18 break point opportunities during his 6-4, 6-3 win, converting five times and winning 48 per cent of his first-serve return points. He has now won four consecutive singles matches in the Davis Cup Finals.

The World No. 12's victory followed teammate Alexei Popyrin's 7-6(5), 6-2 win over Otto Virtanen. "Probably the biggest win of my career," Popyrin told DavisCup.com. "To win a match that means so much for us is an honour and something that I will never forget."

In Sunday's final Australia will play the winner of Serbia and Italy, a tie that will feature a rematch of the Nitto ATP Finals title match between Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner.

Earlier this week Australia was in a big hole against the Czech Republic after Tomas Machac beat Jordan Thompson 6-4, 7-5 and Jiri Lehecka built a 6-4, 5-3 lead against de Minaur. But from deuce in his 3-5 service game, the 24-year-old won 10 straight points to turn the match on its head. After de Minaur claimed the comeback win, Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell clinched the deciding doubles rubber.

Could next week’s Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM prove a stepping stone to greatness for the eight-strong field in Jeddah?

Jiri Lehecka is in no doubt as to the impact of the 21-and-under event on his professional tennis journey so far. The Czech star, who is currently No. 31 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, reached the final at the 2022 edition in Milan. His experience there is one that still shapes him, even one year on.

“I always think about it, because that has still been one of the nicest experiences for me as a player,” the 22-year-old Lehecka told ATPTour.com. “It was just something amazing and I was very happy that it was that kind of tournament where they showed us what it really means to be a top, top tennis player.

“They literally threw us into all the media attention, into the big arena, playing with a new format, trying new rules. It was a great week, I played very good there and I enjoyed it. Of course, it had been a great motivation for me to be in the final eight."

This year, a new group of young ATP Tour stars will vie for glory at a tournament that counts current Top 10 players Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Stefanos Tsitsipas among its former champions. Arthur Fils, Luca Van Assche, Dominic Stricker, Alex Michelsen, Flavio Cobolli, Hamad Medjedovic, Luca Nardi and Abdullah Shelbayh will each hope that a strong run at the event’s new home in Saudi Arabia can help propel them to even bigger and better things.

Carlos Alcaraz is used to carving up opponents, week-in, week-out, on the tennis courts of the ATP Tour. One of the keys to the Spaniard’s success is his reading of the game, his tactical nous, and his ability to strategically outthink his opponents during rallies.

So how do those skills help the 20-year-old when it comes to chasing victories on a chess board? Alcaraz is a keen chess player, whose grandfather introduced him to the game when he was a young boy. His passion for it has endured until today.

“It helps me be mentally quicker, to observe moves, see the move you want to make, strategy... concentrating all the time,” said Alcaraz in an interview with Marca. “In chess, like in tennis, if you take your eye off the ball for a minute you can lose the match. In that regard, they are pretty similar disciplines. It helps me because you are focused, your mind is working.”

Fans of tennis and chess alike now have the chance to test Alcaraz’s skills with bishop and pawn in hand. The No. 2 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and winner of 12 ATP Tour titles, including two Grand Slams, has been introduced as a Chess.com bot that any user can challenge virtually on the platform.

♟️???? https://t.co/1kuObxBjOT

The ATP and Tennis Data Innovations (TDI) in partnership with Kinexon, will deliver unprecedented insights at the 2023 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM. Using state-of-the-art tracking metrics, the insights will assess the physical capacity required to compete at the highest professional level of our sport. The Physicality Index (PI) will allow fans and media to objectively evaluate and quantify the physical outputs of two players competing against each other at the 21-and-under event.

It is important to understand that the Physicality Index (PI) is NOT a direct measurement of the athletes overall tactical performance. It is only reflective of the physical work being produced by each athlete during the match.

At the 2021 Next Gen ATP Finals, Carlos Alcaraz won all five of his matches, spending less than 6.5 hours on court, and only dropping one set in the entire event. From a PI perspective, he worked harder than his opponents in four of the five matches, and his highest match physicality never reached above a 3.4 in the tournament. This did not mean he was not performing at a very high level, but rather indicated that he was able to execute tactically while being very efficient with how much energy he was spending on court.

A similar pattern is visible in the NBA. All-Stars tend to have a lower physicality index ranking because of how efficient they are within different parts of the game. They know when to push and how to save energy while still being on the court, contributing to the overall success of the team.

Tennis champions are some of the most physically fit athletes in the world and are asked to move around the court, executing shots from compromising positions, while staying balanced over multiple hours. The highest levels of tennis set themselves apart from other sports due to the combination of skill and athleticism rarely seen in other sports.

The 2023 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM will award a tournament-record $2 million in prize money at the 21-and-under event, which will be played in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 28 November-2 December.

If the champion at this year’s tournament lifts the trophy with a perfect record, he will earn $514,000, an increase over the previous record.

Three matches at this year’s Next Gen ATP Finals will be worth more than $100,000. Each semi-final victory will be worth $113,500 and the championship match will yield the winner $153,000. The participation fee for each player at the event is $150,000.

Prize Money 2023

Frenchman Arthur Fils and American Alex Michelsen had the honour Friday of opening practice on stadium court at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM, the first ATP-sanctioned event ever held in Saudi Arabia.

Fils and Michelsen are the first two players to arrive for the season-ending 21-and-under event, which will be played at the King Abdullah Sports City from 28 November to 2 December.

"It's the first time we have practicsed together, so it was very nice and the court is very nice," said World No. 36 Fils. "The atmosphere during matches is going to be very good and we're all looking forward to playing the event.

"It's going to be interesting playing with some new rules, like playing to four games."

As he prepares for the tournament, Michelsen has spent a very different Thanksgiving holiday than he did 12 months ago.