ATP Race to Turin Update: Seven out of eight players now qualified as Shelton and De Minaur join field
There is only one spot remaining in the elite eight field at the ATP Finals with Ben Shelton and Alex de Minaur both booking their spots today at the Paris Masters after their latest wins.
De Minaur saw off Karen Khachanov 6-2, 6-2 and is now seventh in the standings and claimed his spot. Before De Minaur qualified last year, the most recent Australian who had played in this tournament was Lleyton Hewitt in 2004. Now he will return to Turin for the second consecutive year.
He won his third ATP 500 of the year in Washington where he saved three championship points against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. He also made the final in Rotterdam and semi-finals also in Monte-Carlo, Beijing and Vienna. He also earned a 300th tour-level win of his career in Vienna with his resume also seeing him lead the tour with hard court wins with 42.
While Ben Shelton will make his long awaited debut in the field next month between 9-16 November. He made a second major semi-final and claimed ATP Masters 1000 glory for the first time
Shelton and Taylor Fritz being in the field for the first time together means that two American players will compete for the trophy since 2006 when James Blake and Andy Roddick were in the field. Blake reached the final that year.
Shelton reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open where only eventual champion Jannik Sinner managed to stop him. He made the Munich final in April and in June he reached the top 10 in the ATP Rankings becoming the fourth lefty from the US to do so. He joins Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Roscoe Tanner to do that.
He became the Canadian Open champion and the first to triumph in the country since Roddick in Miami in 2004. He joins Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Novak Djokovic and Fritz in the field as well as De Minaur. Lorenzo Musetti is currently in that final spot.
Lorenzo Musetti currently holds the last spot. But with him being out, he is free to be sniped by Felix Auger-Aliassime albeit the Canadian likely needs to win the title to seal that spot or hope that Djokovic withdraws. Jack Draper would not be next alternate as his season is over so Casper Ruud would then travel to Turin as the next player.
But the sting in the tail perhaps is Alexander Bublik who could feasibly qualify if he wins the title and becomes alternate which would be very on brand for the Kazakh who perhaps should be higher anyway given he has won four events this year. He beat Taylor Fritz earlier today and is into the Quarter-Finals. While Daniil Medvedev and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina who are still fighting for their spots are next up in 13th and 14th and are playing tonight. The former is into a third set over Lorenzo Sonego. ADF ends the evening against Zverev.
ATP Race Update
#PlayerAgeCountryPoints+/-1✓ Carlos Alcaraz22ESP11,0502✓ Jannik Sinner24ITA9,1003✓ Alexander Zverev28GER4,660+14✓ Novak Djoković38SRB4,580-15✓ Ben Shelton23USA3,970+16✓ Taylor Fritz28USA3,935-17✓ Alex de Minaur26AUS3,9358Lorenzo Musetti23ITA3,6859Félix Auger-Aliassime25CAN3,39510✗ Jack Draper23GBR2,99011✗ Casper Ruud26NOR2,83512Alexander Bublik28KAZ2,670+313Daniil Medvedev29RUS2,66014Alejandro Davidovich Fokina26ESP2,65515✗ Holger Rune22DEN2,590-316✗ Andrey Rublev28RUS2,52017✗ Jiří Lehečka23CZE2,32518✗ Karen Khachanov29RUS2,32019✗ Jakub Menšík20CZE2,18020✗ Tommy Paul28USA2,10021✗ Francisco Cerúndolo27ARG2,085+122✗ Flavio Cobolli23ITA2,040-123✗ Denis Shapovalov26CAN1,67524✗ João Fonseca19BRA1,657+125✗ Tallon Griekspoor29NED1,635-1
