The ATP Tour Finals will play host to Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner’s fight for year-end world No. 1, and the runaway best men’s tennis players in the world have learned who they will face in the round-robin stages.
Sinner will meet Alexander Zverev, Ben Shelton and either Félix Auger-Aliassime or Lorenzo Musetti in Turin, Italy, while Alcaraz will play Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur. But Djokovic, who has won the event seven times, is one of two wild cards in the draw. He is yet to confirm his participation, though the 24-time Grand Slam champion, who sees three-set events as his best opportunity to beat Sinner and Alcaraz, would like his chances in faster indoor conditions.
Djokovic has a much more favorable recent record against Alcaraz than against Sinner, going 0-5 against the Italian and 3-2 against the Spaniard in his most recent five contests with each player.
The other wild card is whether or not Auger-Aliassime will participate, with Italy’s Musetti attempting to overhaul him in the last qualification spot. Musetti is playing the Hellenic Championship in Athens, where he needs to win the title to steal the last spot from the Canadian.
The round-robin stage begins November 9, with the final November 16.
‘Bad news for Lorenzo Musetti’
Analysis by tennis writer Charlie Eccleshare
This draw was particularly bad news for Lorenzo Musetti.
The strange contortions of the ATP Race to Turin mean that Musetti is still toiling away trying to claim the eighth and final spot, but may be fine finishing ninth, if, as remains possible, Novak Djokovic decides to pull out of the ATP Tour Finals.
Musetti hasn’t won an ATP Tour title in three years, and with Djokovic also playing the Hellenic Championship in Athens, the expectation is that Musetti will need the 38-year-old to pull out to secure his place in Turin.
But today’s draw will surely have given Djokovic plenty of encouragement. He has not been put in the same group as Jannik Sinner, his kryptonite and the world’s most in-form player, and he boasts a combined 14-1 winning record against the two players ranked below him in his group, Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur.
The other member of the group, world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, presents a more formidable challenge, but Djokovic has a tantalising opportunity to at least make the semifinals? Djokovic also knows he can get inside the Spaniard’s head, and could even top the group and thus — probably — avoid Sinner until the final.
Djokovic said earlier this week that he will only make a decision on playing Turin once his involvement in Athens is over, and so the waiting for Musetti goes on. Whoever gets the remaining spot out of him and Canada’s Félix Auger-Aliassime will be in a group with Sinner, Alexander Zverev and Ben Shelton.
Either way, it feels unsatisfactory still having so much uncertainty on the eve of the event, and so it’s good news that from 2026 points from events in this equivalent week of the season will not be included in player’s totals for that year.
Another Sinner vs. Alcaraz final looks likely, but that would have been the case whatever draw had been served up. And Djokovic, should he play, looks the player most likely to break up the duopoly.
How does the ATP Tour Finals draw work?
The eight players who qualified were split into four pots for the draw. Pot 1 is No. 1 and No. 2, Pot 2 is No. 3 and No. 4, and so on.
These seedings follow the players’ rankings in the ATP Tour Race to Turin, the table which only counts ranking points earned in 2025.
Each player then plays three round-robin matches. The top two players from each group contest the semifinals, with first in one group playing second in the other, before the winners meet in the final.
What happens if Djokovic does not play?
If Djokovic does not play the event, whoever finishes No. 9 in the Race to Turin will take his place, either Musetti or Auger-Aliassime.
What do Sinner and Alcaraz have to do to finish year-end world No. 1?
Going into the ATP Tour Finals, Alcaraz has a healthy lead over Sinner in the race to finish 2025 on top of the world rankings:
Because of the rankings points structure at the ATP Tour Finals, Alcaraz will end the year as world No. 1 if he goes undefeated in his three round-robin matches, or if he reaches the final with at least one round-robin win, no matter what Sinner does.
Who won last year’s tournament?
Sinner won the 2024 ATP Tour Finals, also in Turin. He beat Fritz 6-4, 6-4 in the final, after going unbeaten through the event.
What is the prize money for the ATP Tour Finals?
The total prize money is $15.5 million (£11.85 million), which is a record for the event. Prize money is allocated per match win, and is structured so that the champion will take home just over $5 million if they go through the event undefeated with five wins (three round-robin wins, a semifinal win, and then victory in the final).
The winner of the final will receive $2.37 million, while the winner of each semifinal will receive just under $1.2 million; the prize for a round-robin match win is $396,500 and each player receives $331,000 just for appearing at the event.
The prize for the winner is larger than any of the four Grand Slams, the largest of which is the U.S. Open at $5 million. It is also the same size as the pool for the WTA Tour Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but is structured slightly differently: the winner there will take home over $5.2 million.
