Champion in Eastbourne and Stuttgart this season and finalist in Tokyo, Fritz hopes to pick up where he left off in Turin.
“I just felt like I was playing very good tennis the whole week [last year]. I had a really good training week leading into it. Obviously making the final was a really good result,” said the American, who beat Alexander Zverev in a third-set tie-break to reach the final. “I would say that moment, winning the semifinal match, was the best.”
Apart from his on-court success, Fritz also holds fond memories of the Turin crowd: “Even though I played Jannik twice, and Jannik in the final, I thought the crowd was amazing and incredibly nice to me, so that was great as well.”
Shelton, who won his first ATP Masters 1000 title this year in Toronto and reached the Munich final, will meet Sinner this week in the Bjorn Borg Group, in which Zverev and Felix Auger-Aliassime were also drawn.
The American will play his first ATP Finals match on Sunday against Zverev, seeking his first win in five tries against the German. Shelton clinched his Turin debut at the Rolex Paris Masters with a 7-6(6), 6-3 win against Andrey Rublev, who competed at the ATP Finals each of the past five years.
If Fritz and Shelton were to meet in the knockout rounds, that matchup would likely determine who finishes the season as the No. 1 American man.
