The 2019 installment was arguably the best year-end championship since it moved to London back in 2009. What will the Nitto ATP Finals do for an encore in 2020–the last time it is held inside the O2 Arena?
Barring injuries, world No. 1 Rafael Nadal and second-ranked Novak Djokovic should be locks. Will Roger Federer play enough–and win enough–to join the party? Could another veteran such as Stan Wawrinka, Andy Murray, or Juan Martin Del Potro make a triumphant return? And who will be the representatives from the younger generation?
Those questions—and more—will soon be answered; so it’s time to predict the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals eight-man field…in order.
1. Rafael Nadal – If Nadal can go through another year in reasonably good health, there is no reason why he can’t add two more slams to his haul. That would likely be enough to finish No. 1–again–given that he also has three clay-court Masters 1000s and at least one clay-court 500 available to his schedule. Nadal finally wrapped up a season with his body intact and his confidence sky-high, so he heads into 2020 with a ton of momentum.
2. Novak Djokovic – Injury issues have popped up in recent seasons, some worse than others. They were never terrible in 2019, but Djokovic retired from a U.S. Open fourth-round match against Wawrinka and he was eliminated in round-round robin action at the Nitto ATP Finals after temporarily recovering from a shoulder problem to win in Tokyo and Paris. The world No. 2 is the most consistent player on tour, but can he capture two slams again?
3. Dominic Thiem – Like Nadal, Thiem benefits from an almost unfairly long clay-court swing. That will once again allow him to pick up a ton of points in April and May, plus he should be a heavy favorite to win the Rio 500-pointer in February. Perhaps most important, however, is the fact that Thiem is now a real force on hard courts. The fourth-ranked Austrian is the defending champion in Indian Wells and finished runner-up at the O2.
4. Stefanos Tsitsipas – From a head-to-head standpoint, Tsitsipas is the best of the outsiders against the Big 3. He loves the big stage (as we saw in wins over Nadal, Djokovic, and Federer plus his year-end championship triumph), and where do the majority of ranking points come from? The big stages, of course. The 21-year-old Greek’s game can work very well on all surfaces, so there is no part of the schedule on which he should struggle.
5. Roger Federer – How many more years does Federer have left, and how much does have left in the tank for those years? At 37 and 38, he had plenty in 2019–when he came within one point of winning Wimbledon and finished No. 3 in the world. The Swiss may get passed by one or two younger competitors due to a relatively short schedule and understandable inconsistency at 38 and 39 years old, but he remains one of the best in the game.
6. Alexander Zverev – Zverev was wrongly accused of enduring a bad year in 2019, but he still qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals without too much trouble. The German also ended the season playing his best tennis and the recent South American tour with Federer should serve as an inspiration heading into 2020. The only knock on Zverev–which is fair–is his ongoing struggles at Grand Slams. He will likely get the monkey off his back soon.
7. Denis Shapovalov – It wouldn’t be that big of a surprise to see at least seven of the 2019 participants remain the same in 2020. But it also wouldn’t be shocking to see at least two newcomers make a breakthrough. At just 20 years old, Shapovalov has already produced two outstanding seasons back-to-back. The Canadian was especially impressive toward the end of 2019 under new coach Mikhail Youzhny, leading his country to the Davis Cup final.
8. Andrey Rublev – Will there be another Matteo Berrettini in 2020? The odds, of course, are against it. But Rublev has a chance to make that kind of leap–one that would be far less surprising than Berrettini’s in 2019. The Russian is up to 23rd in the rankings at 22 years old despite a fair amount of injuries. His second half of this past season featured a blowout of Federer in Cincinnati, a fourth-round appearance at the U.S. Open, and a Davis Cup semifinal run.
Alternates
9. Daniil Medvedev – Medvedev is probably a trendy pick to win a slam in 2020 and finish No. 3. But he is overworked and may endure a bit of a “sophomore slump” following his breakout 2019 campaign.
10. Alex de Minaur – De Minaur is coming, already up to 18th at 20 years old. But he will have to be better at slams and Masters 1000s in order to qualify for London and he may not have the weapons to topple the world’s best at those events.
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WHO YA GOT?
Medvedev will finish inside top 8 even if he gets into slump mode..
Rublev? Nope. Shapo? Maybe. De Minaur in TOP ten? Nope.
If Kei is ok after his injury break, I’ll prefer him over the young guns; Kei is good against anyone who’s not the big three. I still think that the old guards like Stan, Delpo, Murray and Cilic could do something better in 2020 than their 2019; maybe one or two of them may be in top ten if not top eight.
I agree with the top five but I think Medvedev will be inside top eight, may rank ahead of Sasha. I think Medvedev, Sasha and Kei will make up the rest of the top eight, with one of Stan, Delpo, Murray and Cilic in TOP ten. Maybe Goffin or Khachanov too.
Pretty sure Cilic is cooked at this point, I think De Minaur is more likely than he is to make the 10. Stan/Delpo/Murray are a chance but a lot depends on fitness. Certainly it would be nice if they could all get back to form.
De Minaur, because of his size, has to fight very hard esp against big aggressive players; he could be overwhelmed just like he was at the Next Gen final losing to an aggressive Sinner.
Those four guys – Stan, Delpo, Murray and Cilic – if fit, are much better aggressive players than De Minaur, they have bigger weapons; of course the main issue is still their fitness.
Yeah De Minaur will always be up against it, but so was David Ferrer, and he was still consistently a top 5 player [I’m not saying De Minaur will ever equal Ferrer’s level, just demonstrating that it can theoretically happen]. True, he lost to Sinner, although that was a rare occasion of him losing to someone he probably shouldn’t have. Plus, it was only that Next Gen rubbish format. If you had put that as an actual GS Bo5 match, De Minaur probably would’ve had time to recover from the deficit and win.
Cilic won a slam, that’s probably more than De Minaur will ever manage. But his form line has been pretty bad for a while now, I really doubt he’ll get back in the top 10 again.
A lot depends on how he recovers from his injury. He’s a regular top ten for a few years before injury affected him and his season. I mean it’s not long ago that he reached a slam final (AO2018); his 2019 was very much affected by injury. When fit, he has big weapons to help him threaten anyone.
If Murray can stay healthy – that’s HUGE IF – he’ll be back in the Top 10, maybe Top 5.
have to disagree there. but would be nice!
Esp going far at Wimby
Like most people I think the Top 7 will be the same.
1.Djokovic (one slam only)
2. Thiem
3. Nadal #1 if he stays healthy, history tells us he’s due an injury break
4. Tsitsipas
5. Medvedev
6. Federer
7. Zverev
8. Dimitorv
9. Coric 10. Nishikori
Berrenteni’s game improves as his rankining drops a bit. Shapo, FAA, Sinner are another year away I think.
4. Tsitsipass
Not sure about zverev and rublev. Shapo will breakthrough in my opinion too. Surely medvedev qualifies, he would stay in top10 even if he plays average imo. Maybe one of the old guards will qualify too (Murray, Stan, delpo, cilic). What about nishikori? Berrettini? Fognini? One of them will qualify too. Even dimitrov could qualify if he plays well consistently.
Esp going far at Wimby
Hardcourt makes up 60% of the season and yet those who excel on clay benefit from an “almost unfairly long clay-court swing”?? Lol. Okay, sure Jan.
Yes, No1 is THE KING! Such a great match! Rafa was the smarter player out there! Tsitsipas tried his all andvit wasn’t enough!
Gosh, I admire Rafa’s determination, his persistence and above all his motivation to fight and win!
What a great Christmas present for us, Rafans!
Thank you, Rafa! We love you! ❤️❤️💕💕
Sorry, wrong thread 😀
Vamos Rafa!!!!! ❤️❤️❤️
Stefanos has the potential to place himself between the Big 3 this year.. His improvement is unbelievable..
Medvedev, Knov, and Berretini will all be in London 2020!