History The ATP Finals is the fifth iteration of a championship which began in 1970. It was originally known as the
Masters Grand Prix and was part of the
Grand Prix tennis circuit. It was organised by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (
ILTF) and ran alongside the competing
WCT Finals from 1971 to 1989. The Masters was a year-end showpiece event between the best players on the men's tour, but did not count for any world ranking points. In 1990, the
Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) took over the running of the men's tour and replaced the Masters with the "ATP Tour World Championships". The ITF, who continued to run the Grand Slam tournaments, created a rival year-end event known as the
Grand Slam Cup, which was contested by the 16 players with the best records in the Grand Slam tournaments of the season (1990–99). In December 1999, the ATP and ITF agreed to discontinue the two separate events and create a new jointly owned event called the "Tennis Masters Cup". but was extended multiple times until it was last held there in 2020. In 2017 the event was renamed the "ATP Finals". In April 2019, the ATP announced that
Turin would host the ATP Finals from 2021 to 2025. For most of its history, the event has been considered the most important indoor tennis tournament in the world (there were a few exceptions when the event was held outdoors: 1974 in Melbourne & 2003–04 in Houston). The indoor atmosphere allows for controlled conditions of play, both in terms of the court surface and the court's illumination. In recent years it has been played on indoor hard courts, however, indoor carpet was used in some previous editions. On one occasion, when Melbourne hosted the event in
1974, the grass courts of Kooyong Stadium were used; the tournament was staged only 1–2 weeks before the
1975 Australian Open, which was also played on grass. Apart from 1974, all tournaments have been on a hard court variant, which has prompted calls from some players (such as
Rafael Nadal) to feature a greater variety of surfaces, including
clay courts. For many years, the doubles event was held as a separate tournament staged the week after the singles competition, but more recently both events have been held together during the same week and in the same venue. In 2020, amid the
COVID-19 pandemic and in an effort to reduce the number of staff on-site, the ATP introduced live
electronic line-calling powered by
Hawk-Eye Live. Instead of line umpires, the system detects the relevant movements of the player and where the ball bounces on court. A pre-recorded voice announces "Out", "Fault", and "Foot fault".
Video review was also introduced for suspected double bounces, touches, and other reviewable calls. The tournament has traditionally been sponsored by the title sponsor of the tour; however, in 1990–2008 the competition was not sponsored, even though the singles portion of the event, as part of the ATP Tour, was sponsored by
IBM. In 2009, the tournament gained
Barclays PLC as its title sponsor. Barclays confirmed in 2015 that they would not renew their sponsorship deal once it expires in 2016. On 25 May 2017, it was announced that
Nitto Denko would be the main sponsor for the tournament through 2020. In September 2020, Nitto Denko announced it will extend its title partnership of the ATP Finals for another five years, until 2025. In November 2025, Nitto Denko announced it will extend its title partnership of the ATP Finals for another five years, until 2030.
Qualification The criteria to qualify for the ATP Finals are as follows: • Players and teams who finish the season ranked in the top seven in the
ATP race automatically qualify. • The eighth spot is reserved for a player or team who won a major in the season and is ranked from eighth to twentieth.
Goran Ivanišević in
2001,
Albert Costa in
2002,
Gastón Gaudio in
2004, and
Marin Čilić in
2014 are the singles players who have qualified due to their major title despite not ending in the top eight in the ATP race. • If more than one player or team won a Grand Slam event in the season and are ranked from eighth to twentieth, then whoever is highest-ranked is awarded the eighth spot; whoever is second highest-ranked is made first alternate. • If there is no player who won a major in the season and is ranked from eighth to twentieth, then the eight spot is awarded to the player ranked eighth. Two alternates also attend the ATP Finals. If the first alternate has already been selected according to (3) mentioned above, then the second alternate is the highest-ranked player who has not otherwise qualified for the event. If both alternate spots are available, they are awarded to the two highest-ranked players who did not otherwise qualify for the event. An alternate can replace a player who withdraws before the
round-robin stage is over, so long as the player who withdraws still has at least one round-robin match left to play. When an alternate enters the competition, his results are considered separately, i.e. the alternate does not inherit the results of the player he is replacing. If an alternate's round-robin results qualify him for the semifinals, then he may continue into the single-elimination rounds.
Format Unlike other events on the
ATP Tour, the ATP Finals is not a straightforward single-elimination tournament. The eight players and teams are divided into two groups of four and each play three
round-robin matches against the others in their group. After the round-robin stage, the top two performers in each group advance to the semifinals in a knock-out stage. The two winners of the semifinals play a final to determine the champion. In this format, it is theoretically possible to advance to the semifinals with two round-robin losses, but no player in the history of the singles tournament has won the title after losing more than one round-robin match. To create the groups, the eight players and teams are seeded according to rank. The first and second seeds are placed in Group A and Group B, respectively. The remaining seeds are drawn in pairs (third and fourth, fifth and sixth, seventh and eighth); the first of the pair to be drawn goes to Group A and the other to Group B, and so on. The format described above has been in place for all editions of the tournament except the following years: • 1970–71: All round robin (no groups), no semifinals or finals, the winner was decided based on round-robin standings. • 1982–84: 12-player three-round single-elimination tournament (no round robin), the top four seeds received byes in the first round. • 1985: 16-player four-round single-elimination tournament (no round robin), no byes.
Group standings Since 2019, the group standings at the end of the round-robin stage are determined by, in order: • Most matches won. • Most matches played (for example: the record 1–2 beats 1–1, and 2–1 beats 2–0). If some players are tied, the following tiebreakers are used depending on how many players are tied (two or three): If two players are tied, then: • Head-to-head round-robin result. If three players are tied, then the following tiebreakers are used, in order, until all three players are no longer tied OR until only two players are tied, at which point the two-player tie is broken by the head-to-head round robin result: • Highest % of sets won. • Highest % of games won. • Highest ranking at the start of the tournament. When calculating tiebreakers, a match that ended in a retirement is counted as a 0–2 sets loss for the retiring player and a 2–0 sets win for their opponent, regardless of the actual score when the retirement occurred. When calculating the "Highest % of games won" tiebreaker, a match that ended in a retirement is disregarded.
Venues ATP Finals is the men's premier indoor event of the season, only in three editions it was played outdoors; 1974, 2003 and 2004. == Prize money, ranking points and trophies ==