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He was pushed all the way in a night-session thriller on Tuesday, but Casper Ruud is a Nitto ATP Finals semi-finalist once again.

The third seed prevailed 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(6) in a high-powered clash against Taylor Fritz at the season finale in Turin to confirm his progression from Green Group. The Norwegian backed up his opening victory against Felix Auger-Aliassime by holding his nerve in the deciding-set tie-break to claim a tense two-hour, 12-minute victory.

After the pair split an opening two sets largely dominated by serve, a moment of Fritz magic maintained parity in the decider as the American saved a break point at 2-2, 40/A with a stunning diving backhand volley. Yet Ruud stayed solid throughout the third set, facing no break points and producing some heavy-hitting in the tie-break to triumph in the pair’s first ATP Head2Head meeting.

Ruud is a three-time champion on the ATP Tour this season. The 23-year-old lifted trophies on clay in Buenos Aires, Geneva and Gstaad, and he will now compete in the Nitto ATP Finals for the second consecutive year. The Norwegian reached the same stage on tournament debut in 2021, when he fell to Daniil Medvedev.

More to follow…

When Rafael Nadal was eliminated from semi-final contention at the Nitto ATP Finals on Tuesday evening, history was made. Nineteen-year-old Carlos Alcaraz will become the youngest year-end ATP No. 1 presented by Pepperstone in history (since 1973), making him the first teen to accomplish the feat.

The Spaniard has enjoyed an unforgettable rise in 2022, ascending from World No. 32 at the start of the year to the top of the men’s tennis mountain on 12 September. That is the biggest jump to No. 1 in 50 editions of the year-end Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

Before this year, the youngest year-end ATP No. 1 was Lleyton Hewitt, who was aged 20 years, 275 days when he did it in 2001. Alcaraz will be 19 years, 214 days on 5 December, the 2022 year-end ranking date following the last ATP Challenger Tour events of the season.

Alcaraz is the 18th year-end ATP No. 1 presented by Pepperstone in history and the first outside the Big Four of Novak Djokovic (7), Roger Federer (5), Nadal (5) and Andy Murray (1) since Andy Roddick in 2003. The 19-year-old joins Nadal (2008, 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2019) as Spanish year-end No. 1s.

The 2021 Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals champion made an early splash this year when he became the youngest ATP 500 champion in series history (since 2009) at the Rio Open presented by Claro. The Spaniard followed that victory with his maiden ATP Masters 1000 triumph in Miami.

Renowned for his high-speed hitting, Casper Ruud immediately brought his free-flowing best to the 2022 Nitto ATP Finals. He downed Felix Auger-Aliassime in straight sets in his Green Group opener on Sunday in Turin and will seek a similar result on Tuesday against Taylor Fritz.

But when it comes to spending time in Italy, how does the Norwegian’s off-court taste compare to his on-court intensity? When asked by ATPTour.com about what he would do if given the choice between attending a Serie A match and watching the historic Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the Norwegian leant towards the more high-octane experience.

“Depends which match, but Monza would be awesome to watch one day,” said the 23-year-old. Ruud would also opt for a climb up the famous volcano Mount Vesuvius, which towers 1,281 metres above the Bay of Naples, ahead of another history-filled trip to the Colosseum in Rome.

“The climb would be fun, I think,” said the nine-time tour-level titlist. “I have visited the Colosseum before so it’s an easy choice.”

Ruud is chasing his maiden title in Italy, where he reached his fifth ATP Masters 1000 semi-final in May at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome. Yet despite his fond memories from that week on the clay of the Italian capital, he is less-than-sold on one particularly renowned aspect of Italian culture — coffee.

Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury edged closer to the semi-finals at the Nitto ATP Finals Tuesday when they downed Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara 7-5, 6-4 to improve to 2-0 in Red Group action.

The second seeds defeated Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in their opening match and backed up that win with a hard-fought victory against the British-Finnish pair.

In an entertaining clash, both teams produced moments of brilliance throughout the 73-minute clash. However, it was Ram and Salisbury who delivered the key blows when it mattered. They were rewarded for their aggressive returning in the 11th game of the first set when they broke for 6-5, before they won 88 per cent (15/17) of their first-service points in the second set to triumph.

"Really happy to get the win,” Salisbury said. “They're a tough team, we've lost to them twice this year. We're happy with everything we did out there. They're a strong serving team, didn't have many chances but we stuck in there and took the chances we had. We were good on serve as well."

“The thing is, they've just gotten better and better over the year,” Ram said. “We knew we were going to be up against it and we had to bring our best level."

Despite falling to a 0-2 record at the Nitto ATP Finals on Tuesday, Rafael Nadal is aiming to take the positives from his performances into his final round-robin match against Casper Ruud in Turin.

The Spaniard arrived in Turin off the back of competing in Paris and he showed glimpses of his best level against Felix Auger-Aliassime at the Pala Alpitour. However, he was unable to sustain a consistent level for large periods, falling in straight sets.

“[There are a] couple of positive things. I was able to play two tournaments in the past three weeks. That's the positive thing, something that I was not able to do for a while,” Nadal said in his post-match press conference. “I don't think I forgot how to play tennis, how to be strong enough mentally. I just need to recover all these positive feelings and all this confidence and all this strong mentality that I need to be at the level that I want to be.

“I don't know if I going to reach that level again. But what I don't have any doubt is that I [am] going to die for it.”

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Tennis fever has hit Turin this week, with fans coming out in big crowds to get a glimpse of the stars competing at the Nitto ATP Finals. From lining the streets outside the player hotel, to watching at the Allianz Cloud, the fans have shown support.

Australians Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios are making their debut at the prestigious year-end event and have relished their time in Turin so far.

“It's been a cool experience,” Kokkinakis said. “Obviously everything is A1 here. You're a select few. Everyone deserves to be here. You're playing against quality players. So it's the best of the best. It’s been awesome.”

Good friends off court, Kokkinakis and Kyrgios have delivered together this season, soaring to the Australian Open title in a dream run as a team in January. Having been supported on home soil in Melbourne, Kokkinakis has enjoyed the fan engagement in Turin, even if it hasn’t always been directed towards him.

“[In] Turin, you can tell the fans really love it. They're stacked outside the hotel just waiting for the big guys to come through. Then they have their phone out. They see me roll up, and you just hear this sigh of disappointment when I roll in. ‘Oh, no, Kokkinakis. Where is Kyrgios’,” Kokkinakis joked.

American Frances Tiafoe predicted the rise of countryman Brandon Nakashima when they met for the first time at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Dallas, Texas.

“Watch out for this guy,” Tiafoe said following the three-set victory in February 2020. “He’s got a bright future ahead. He’s got game, I’m definitely a fan.”

It didn’t take long for Nakashima to make an impact on the professional circuit. In November 2020, Nakashima collected his first Challenger title on home soil in Orlando. Exactly two years later, the California native finished a breakthrough season on the ATP Tour by triumphing at the prestigious Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals.

The 21-year-old isn’t forgetting his early days on the Challenger Tour.

Felix Auger-Aliassime’s red-hot streak may have a hit a recent blip, but the Canadian could not be kept down for long at the Nitto ATP Finals.

The fifth seed bounced back impressively from his opening defeat to Casper Ruud at the season finale in Turin, where he defeated top seed Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday to notch his maiden victory at the prestigious season finale.

“I think having one match here, I got used to the conditions on centre court,” Auger-Aliassime said. “It helped me a lot. I felt my game was better today. My serve was great and return and backhand was much better. I was hitting it with my more consistency and quality. When I am playing like this, I have proven I can compete and beat some of the best players in the world.”

Despite the loss, Nadal has not been eliminated from contention for year-end No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. If Ruud wins a set against Taylor Fritz on Tuesday evening, Nadal will be eliminated from semi-final contention in Turin and therefore Carlos Alcaraz will clinch year-end World No. 1.

Auger-Aliassime withstood some early pressure from the top-seeded Nadal, recovering from 15/40 to hold serve in the both the first and seventh games of the first set. The Canadian produced precise serving and struck the ball cleanly off both wings at important moments throughout, saving five of five break points to improve his record in Green Group to 1-1. The Canadian will take on Taylor Fritz in his final round-robin match at the Pala Alpitour as he seeks to reach the semi-finals on tournament debut.

Marcel Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer kept alive their semi-final hopes at the Nitto ATP Finals Tuesday when they moved past seventh seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos 6-1, 6-7(3), 10-7 in Turin.

The third seeds made a flying start in the Red Group clash, crushing returns and closing the net sharply to clinch the opening set in just 22 minutes. The pair then held its nerve in the Match Tie-break to triumph after 87 minutes.

“[The fast start] was one of the keys to the match,” said Rojer afterwards. “We obviously lost our first-round match, and as everybody knows, matches are very difficult to win here. Everybody obviously plays so well, and the margins are so small. We wanted to come off to an aggressive start. That doesn’t always mean you’re going to do it, but I think that helped us a lot because then we could settle into the match.

“We used some other plays and tried some other things when we were far ahead in the first set that we thought could come in handy later in the match, so that was one of the keys to the match, to try to get a fast start if we could. We did, and again, just small margins out there. Those guys are tough, righty-lefty, both great players, just really happy to come through.”

Arevalo and Rojer now hold a 1-1 record in the Red Group, having lost to Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara in their opening match. The Salvadoran-Dutch team will face second seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in their final round-robin match on Thursday.

Taylor Fritz on Sunday earned one of the biggest wins of his career when he defeated top seed Rafael Nadal on his Nitto ATP Finals debut. Eight days earlier, the American did not know he would be competing in the tournament.

The 25-year-old was on vacation in Switzerland with his girlfriend Morgan Riddle when World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz withdrew from the season finale. Fritz’s coach, Michael Russell, received a call from his player.

“He FaceTimed me because we were in Switzerland, but separate places. Obviously he was so excited,” Russell told ATPTour.com. “We’ve all had an amazing year. He’s been playing so well and we [had] gotten close to getting directly in and obviously [it was] unfortunate with Carlos having the ab injury. We didn’t know how serious it was and you don’t want somebody to be injured of course. Such a great player, a nice guy.

“When he did have to pull out and Taylor got in, he was just so ecstatic. He was ecstatic obviously to come and be an alternate, but to get in directly and have a chance to play for the title, it just gives you that extra adrenaline and motivation.”

Photo Credit: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour
Although Fritz and Russell both traveled to Switzerland, they were far from checked out.

After two days of world-class action at the Nitto ATP Finals, each of the eight singles players and eight doubles teams has played one match in Turin. While those who won their openers could seal a semi-final place on Tuesday, others are bidding to keep their hopes of progress alive by avoiding an 0-2 start.

Opponents Rafael Nadal and Felix Auger-Aliassime fall into the latter category on Day 3, while Casper Ruud and Taylor Fritz will look to stay perfect on the week in their evening matchup.

In doubles action, Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer face Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos with both teams in search of their first victories. Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury meet Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara in a battle of 1-0 duos.

View Schedule | View Group Standings | Semi-final Qualification Scenarios

[1] Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs. [5] Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN)

Nadal and Auger-Aliassime took very different paths to Turin in the past two months. While Nadal played just one singles match following the US Open — a Rolex Paris Masters defeat against Tommy Paul — Auger-Aliassime put together a career-best 16-match win streak as he claimed titles in Florence, Antwerp and Basel before reaching the Paris semi-finals.

Seven-time year-end World No. 1 Novak Djokovic is not in contention for the coveted honour this week in Turin, but the Serbian is having an influence on the outcome.

By defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in his opening round-robin match, the 35-year-old ended the Greek’s chances to finish the year No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. The two-time Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters champion and 2019 Nitto ATP Finals titlist needed to emerge as an undefeated champion in Turin to finish the year on top.

Rafael Nadal is now the only man who can prevent 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz from creating history as the youngest ever year-end No. 1. After dropping his opening round-robin match to Taylor Fritz, Nadal must win the season finale for the first time to finish year-end No. 1 for a sixth time.

Despite seeing his chances of finishing year-end No. 1 - and getting to No. 1 for the first time - put on hold in Turin, Tsitsipas is hopeful that his day will eventually come.

“If I was to play good tennis this week, win all of my matches, for sure I deserve the spot. It shows good performance, it shows consistency,” he said. “But, look, it's not really occupying too much of my mind. I'm kind of excited that I get the opportunity to do something this week that can give me a record, a personal record, and a milestone.

It will be the second time Felix Auger-Aliassime squares off against Rafael Nadal with Toni Nadal as the Canadian’s coach. The first occasion came earlier this season in the Roland Garros fourth round, when the Spaniard came out on top after five intense sets. The second will take place on Tuesday at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, with both players seeking their first win after disappointing starts.

Unlike at the clay-court Grand Slam, where he decided to watch the match from the stands in neutral territory, Toni will sit alongside Auger-Aliassime’s team in the Pala Alpitour.
“I’ll be watching from Felix’s box,” acknowledged Nadal’s uncle on Monday in Turin. “It’s different to Roland Garros. There, it was the first time they’d met and... there’s something extra [in Paris]. Here, really, there’s no problem. I won’t celebrate the points and I’m not going to say who I want to win, but it won’t be a tragedy whichever one does.”

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Nadal has a 2-0 lead in his ATP Head2Head series with Auger-Aliassime, but the Canadian has enjoyed a spectacular close to the season, claiming the titles in Florence, Antwerp and Basel.
“He has gained peace of mind and has more control of the ball,” explained the Mallorcan coach. “Before, he had very good shots, but his tennis was slightly out of control. He was capable of playing well, he hit great shots, but now it’s stabilised. Yesterday, for example, he lost, but he didn’t play terribly. This is what all the world’s best players do. His level has increased.”

As well as being a quality player, which has taken him to a career-high of No. 6 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Felix is also very good at listening to the advice of his team and executing it.

A dream became reality on Monday for Neal Skupski.

The 32-year-old from Liverpool, England, climbed to joint-No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings alongside partner Wesley Koolhof. Skupski is the third Briton to become World No. 1 in doubles.

“It’s a dream come true to top the world rankings. It means everything and I couldn’t have done it without the support of so many people along the way, especially my family,” Skupski told ATPTour.com. “It’s special to join such an illustrious group of players who have topped the rankings before me.

“Hopefully Wes and I can continue our good form and increase our stay at the top.”

Koolhof and Skupski have already clinched year-end No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Team Rankings and are the top seeds at this week’s Nitto ATP Finals. It has been a breakthrough season for Skupski, who is competing at the season finale for the first time.

Novak Djokovic began his quest for a record-equalling sixth Nitto ATP Finals title Monday when he defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 7-6(4) to end the Greek’s year-end No. 1 Pepperstone ATP Ranking chances.

Fans were dazzled by the electric light show in the Pala Alpitour prior to the match. Djokovic then took centre stage and produced a ruthless performance to move to 1-0 in Red Group.

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The Serbian quickly found his range in Turin, breaking in the first game to take early control. The seventh seed pulled Tsitsipas around the court with his precise groundstrokes, while he hit a range of stunning passing shots, demonstrating great agility to triumph after one hour and 37 minutes.

“The first game was very important to break his serve,” Djokovic said. “Starting with a break of serve is obviously a huge boost in confidence and a relief as well because we both knew it would be a tight match."

Argentine Genaro Alberto Olivieri and American Ben Shelton etched their names in the ATP Challenger Tour history book this week. Olivieri triumphed at the Uruguay Open to add to Argentina’s record-setting 22 Challenger titles this year while Shelton continued his sizzling run in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he sealed his second consecutive title. Olivieri and Shelton are among six Challenger champions this week.

After rain forced the final to be completed Monday, Olivieri captured his maiden Challenger title by defeating countryman Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 6-3 to win the Montevideo Challenger.

Olivieri, who climbs to a career-high 191 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, is the 15th different Argentine champion of this year, marking a Challenger Tour record for the most different winners from a single country in a season. The Bragado native is also one of the record-setting 50 first-time Challenger winners in 2022.

In the championship match, the 24-year-old avenged this past month’s loss in Lima to Etcheverry, who was seeded second in Montevideo. Olivieri needed three hours, 31 minutes to get past his countryman Etcheverry, tying the Challenger Tour record for the longest final (Winnetka 2015, Devvarman d. Nguyen).

Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic held their nerve in a Match Tie-break to prevail in an engrossing round-robin encounter on Monday at the Nitto ATP Finals, where the fourth seeds came through 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 against Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek.

After the teams split a hard-fought opening two sets in the Green Group clash, it was Mektic and Pavic who were clinical at key moments in the decider. Despite being pegged back from 4/1 to 7/7 in the Match Tie-break, the Croatian pair reeled off three points in a row to clinch a 92-minute victory.

“I think it was a good match overall,” said Pavic. “We had some up and downs during the match, but we managed to win it in a Match Tie-break. It is always kind of a lottery in a [Match Tie-break], a few points here and there. I guess it went to our side, and we are super happy to start off with a win. We did it also last year, and I would say it makes a bit of a difference.”

Both teams were precise with their delivery at key moments, with the first two sets being decided by a solitary break. Mektic admitted that the pacy conditions at the Pala Alpitour made staying in return games a challenge.

“The conditions are really, really fast,” said Mektic. “Last year I was surprised how fast it was, this year, maybe I got slower! It definitely feels very fast. The guys were serving amazing. They served so many aces and we are so happy to win. I’ve got to thank my partner was really playing amazing today, he definitely carried the team, and very happy to win.”

Daniil Medvedev has produced some of his best tennis at the Nitto ATP Finals in recent years, soaring to the title in 2020 before he reached the final last season.

However, he was unable to find top gear in his opening match at the 2022 edition, falling to Andrey Rublev on Monday in Turin.

“There are some matches where you feel you're untouchable, and everything you do — let's put it this way — turns into gold,” Medvedev said in his post-match press conference. “Today was not one of them.

“I didn't feel amazing during the match. I would enjoy it if I would feel better in terms of tennis. But, again, looking back, [there were] some great points. This can make you play better and turn things into gold in the next matches.”

Medvedev produced moments of brilliance during the two-hour, 31-minute Red Group clash, but was unable to consistently deliver to earn victory. The 26-year-old admitted that he struggled to cope with the fast indoor conditions at the Pala Alpitour, but hopes he can adjust ahead of his second match against Novak Djokovic or Stefanos Tsitsipas.