It came down to the last day of the regular season, but the stage is finally set for the 2017 World Tour Finals. Eight singles participants and eight doubles teams will take the court at the O2 Arena in London for an eight-day tennis extravaganza starting on Sunday.
The eight singles qualifiers are Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Marin Cilic, Grigor Dimitrov, David Goffin, and Jack Sock. Two places were there for the taking at last week’s Rolex Paris Masters, where Goffin and Sock clinched their London berths. Sock had to win the title in order to secure a spot in London, and that is exactly what he did.
“There have been a lot of firsts (for me in Paris),” Sock said after winning a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time in his career. “It started at the French Open with my first fourth round of a slam, now I’ve won my first Masters 1000 in Paris. This will be my first time in the top 10 and this will be the first time making the year-end finals.”
Sock and the rest of the field will find out their round-robin groups on Wednesday. As the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively, Nadal and Federer are sure to avoid each other at least until the semifinals.
The two groups will once again be named after past champions, a tradition established by The Finals Club–an initiative launched by the ATP in 2015. This year’s singles groups are named for Pete Sampras (Group A) and Boris Becker (Group B). Sampras won the year-end championship in 1991, 1994, 1996, 1997, and 1999. Becker was the winner in 1988, 1992, and 1995.
In doubles, Group A is named after Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, who won the event in 1992 and 1996. Group B is named after Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis, who captured titles in 1993 and 1998.
This year’s doubles lineup is as follows:
1) Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot
2) Henri Kontinen and John Peers
3) Jean-Julien Roger and Horia Tecau
4) Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares
5) Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan
6) Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut
7) Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers
8) Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus
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