Qualification scenarios for the Nitto ATP World Tour Finals
With the Nitto ATP World Tour Finals set to take place in one month from now at the O2 Arena in London in November, a few players have already qualified for the showdown. However, given the absence of many big names who are out injured, a lot of unexpected names have the chance to qualify for the first time
In this article, we take a look at those players who have already qualified, those who will most likely qualify, and three stars who have an outside chance to make it to the top 8.
We also take a look at the four stars who will be missing out on the action due to injury.
Qualified:
Rafael Nadal: 9365 points
Rafael Nadal has had a dream season so far and has gone on to reclaim the World no. 1 ranking after many years.
After the defeat to Roger Federer down under, he reclaimed the French crown as he won the tournament for the tenth time in his career and followed that up with his 3rd US Open victory with a dominant performance in the second week of the tournament.
He will most likely end the year as the world no. 1 but will have his task cut-out as most of the tournaments which are yet to take place are indoor hard court tournaments – a surface where Nadal hasn’t found too much success.
Roger Federer: 7505 points
The 36 year old has had the perfect season so far apart from the disappointing outing at the US Open. He began the season with the win at the Australian Open against his arch-nemesis, followed that up with the sunshine double before taking a break.
He came back fresh and was victorious at SW19 for the eighth time in his career. What made the tournament even more special was that he won it without dropping a single set. A slight back niggle cost him the title at Montreal and a sloppy performance at Flushing Meadows gave away the no. 1 rank to Nadal.
However, Federer could reclaim the top spot if he manages to win the remaining tournaments including the World Tour Finals.
Given his liking to the surface and his track record, he would go into the Finals as the firm favourite, ahead of the world no. 1 Nadal.
Alexander Zverev: 4155 points
Next-gen star Alexander ‘Sascha’ Zverev had a breakthrough season and has reached new heights in his career.
He achieved his first ever Masters title at the Rome Masters where he defeated Novak Djokovic in straight sets. His second Masters title came in Montreal where he defeated Federer in straight sets.
His performance in the Grand Slams was quite poor as he failed to reach the 2nd week in all four slams.
He is the only player who will be playing the Next-Gen ATP Finals and the ATP World Tour Finals too.