ATP Cup groups announced: Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev feature in star-studded lineup
The 2022 ATP Cup will feature 18 of the world's top 20 men's singles players, including the top five — Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev.
The only top-20 players missing from the upcoming third edition of the men's team competition, scheduled to be held in Sydney from 1-9 January 2022, are Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. While the Spaniard will play an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi and another Australian Open warmup tournament before the year's first Major, the Swiss is still recovering from knee surgery.
With Djokovic named in the Serbian team, it puts to rest all doubts regarding his participation in the Australian swing. The World No. 1 has refused to reveal his vaccination status as well as where he will be starting the new season, but did say last week that he would announce it "very soon."
The Australian Open has made double vaccination mandatory for all players, which had previously cast doubt over Djokovic's participation in the year's first Slam.
2022 ATP Cup Groups
ATP Cup groups https://t.co/inIDE1wphC
The 2022 ATP Cup will see 16 countries divided into four groups, which were revealed on Tuesday.
Group A will be led by top seeds Serbia, spearheaded by Djokovic. The inaugural ATP Cup champions will vie with Spain, Norway and Spain for a spot in the knockouts.
Second seeds and defending champions Russia have been placed in Group B alongside Austria, Italy and hosts Australia. Buoyed by their recent Davis Cup glory, Russians Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev will hope to shine for their country once again.
Olympic champion Alexander Zverev will lead third seeds Germany in Group C, where they will face competition from Great Britain, Canada and the United States.
Fourth seeds Greece, featuring French Open runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas, will headline Group D, where they will contend with the likes of Poland, Argentina and Georgia.
Tie & prize money
The upcoming edition of the ATP Cup will be held at the Ken Rosewall Arena and Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. The nine-day competition will see winners from each of the four groups advancing to the semifinals.
Each tie will comprise a couple of singles matches and one doubles rubber. The participating nations can field a maximum of five players. Each tie will kick off with a singles face-off between the No. 2 players of the respective countries followed by a match between the top players before heading to the doubles rubber.
The 2022 ATP Cup will also see a 40% prize money boost after being hit hard by the pandemic this year. The first edition of the tournament, staged in 2020, had a AUD $22 million pool, which went down to AUD $10 million in 2021 due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The third edition will have AUD $14 million to be shared among the 16 teams.
The ATP Cup will revert to the original 24 teams in 2023 after a reduction in the number of teams for two seasons due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Full list of players committed for 2022 ATP Cup
ATP Cup - list of committed players https://t.co/eGxP0VNiGx
Serbia - Novak Djokovic, Dusan Lajovic, Filip Krajinovic, Nikola Cacic, Matej Sabanov
Russia - Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Aslan Karatsev, Roman Safiullin, Evgeny Donskoy
Germany - Alexander Zverev, Jan-Lennard Struff, Yannick Hanfmann, Kevin Krawietz, Tim Puetz
Greece - Stefanos Tsitsipas, Michail Pervolarakis, Petros Tsitsipas, Markos Kalovelonis, Aristotelis Thanos
Italy - Matteo Berrettini, Jannik Sinner, Lorenzo Sonego, Simone Bolelli, Fabio Fognini
Norway - Casper Ruud, Viktor Durasovic, Lukas Hellum-Lilleengen, Leyton Rivera, Andreja Petrovic
Poland - Hubert Hurkacz, Kamil Majchrzak, Kacper Zuk, Jan Zielinski, Szymon Walkow
Canada - Felix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov, Brayden Schnur, Peter Polansky, Steven Diez
Great Britain - Cameron Norrie, Daniel Evans, Liam Broady, Joe Salisbury, Jamie Murray
Argentina - Diego Schwartzman, Federico Delbonis, Federico Coria, Maximo Gonzalez, Andres Molteni
Austria - Dominic Thiem, Dennis Novak, Lucas Miedler, Oliver Marach, Philipp Oswald
Chile - Cristian Garin, Alejandro Tabilo, Tomas Barrios Vera
Spain - Roberto Bautista Agut, Pablo Carreno Busta, Albert Ramos-Vinolas, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Pedro Martinez
Georgia - Nikoloz Basilashvili, Aleksandre Metreveli, Aleksandre Bakshi, Zura Tkemaladze, Saba Purtseladze
United States - Taylor Fritz, John Isner, Brandon Nakashima, Rajeev Ram, Austin Krajicek
Australia - Alex de Minaur, James Duckworth, Max Purcell, John Peers, Luke Saville
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