Home favourite Sinner meets debutant De Minaur in Turin opener

The 2024 Nitto ATP Finals kicks off Sunday in Turin with two singles matches and two doubles matches between the game's very best in the Inalpi Arena.

The Ilie Nastase Group will begin singles play on Day 1, with Italy's Jannik Sinner taking on debutatant Alex de Minaur in the evening session, after Daniil Medvedev meets Taylor Fritz during the day session. Day 1 doubles action will begin with Nikola Mektic and Wesley Koolhof taking on Aussies Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson, before Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos play Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten.

[1] Jannik Sinner (ITA) vs. [7] Alex de Minaur (AUS)
No one at the Nitto ATP Finals has the luxury of playing his way into form in Turin. That's doubly true for De Minaur, who drew Sinner — already confirmed as the year-end No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings — as the opening assignment of his maiden campaign at the season finale.

The Aussie will hope Sunday is a day of firsts in more ways than one. In addition to making his Nitto ATP Finals debut, the 25-year-old will be bidding for his first Lexus ATP Head2Head victory in eight tries against Sinner.

“It is not rocket science, but you have to be ready from the word go. It doesn’t get any harder than starting against Jannik,” De Minaur said after the draw. “From the very start, I need to be ready, I need to compete. It is going to be a great experience. A great challenge. But this is where I have wanted to be all these years.”

As a reward for his breakthrough into the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings this season, De Minaur earned a place among the game's best in Turin. Even among that elite group, Sinner's season stands out. The Italian racked up 65 wins and a tour-leading seven titles in 2024, including his first two major titles at the Australian Open and the US Open.

Perhaps the only thing missing for the Italian this year? Competing in his home nation. Sinner missed the Rome ATP Masters 1000 with a hip injury, making his Turin return even more significant.

“Many things make [this tournament] special,” Sinner told ATP Media on Thursday. “First of all, being an Italian and playing in Italy. I haven’t played in Italy this year, because I missed Rome. That was a really tough one, but I am even more excited and happy to be here.”

The evening showdown between Sinner and De Minaur will see perhaps the game's purest ballstriker attempt to hit through one of the most dogged defenders in the sport. While De Minaur is more than capable of taking the action to Sinner, his ability to "steal" points from defence will be key in his upset bid. According to Tennis Data Innovations, De Minaur won 38.5 per cent of points this year in which his opponent gains an attacking advantage. That ability will be put to the test on Sunday evening.

[4] Daniil Medvedev vs. [5] Taylor Fritz (USA)
While Medvedev and Fritz have both been ever-presents near the top of the PIF ATP Rankings in recent years, they only have one previous Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting between them. At the Cincinnati ATP Masters 1000 in 2022, Medvedev was a straight-sets winner in the quarter-finals.

Both men competed at the Nitto ATP Finals that season. This year, Medvedev makes his sixth straight appearance at the event, while Fritz returns for his second.

“With Taylor, it’s pretty crazy because we’ve both been Top 10 for like three years and we kind of started to be on Tour at the same time and we’ve only played each other one time, which is crazy,” said Medvedev.

Quick conditions are expected in the Inalpi Arena, but Fritz is wary of his opponent's ability to slow things down.

“Daniil is obviously very awkward [to play] because he slows down the speed of the match a lot with how he plays and how he hits the ball. He doesn’t play with a lot of spin or lift for you to work off of,” Fritz said. “You constantly are feeling like you have to lift and generate pace. He slows down the court a lot.”

After reaching his first Grand Slam final this year at the US Open and notching 17 total wins at the majors, Fritz is focused on continuing his consistency at the big events. Medvedev's best major result also came on the hard courts of New York, where he won the 2021 title, denying Novak Djokovic a calendar-year Grand Slam with a flawless final performance

Both men have also enjoyed success at the Nitto ATP Finals. Medvedev won the title in 2020 before reaching the 2021 final and the 2023 semis. Fritz powered his way into the 2022 semi-finals in his lone previous Turin appearance, beating Rafael Nadal along the way. There could yet be space for both men in this year's knockout rounds, but the toughest tournament in tennis will become even more challenging for the loser of this opening showdown.

Doubles Action
Second seeds Granollers and Zeballos seek to go one step further at the Nitto ATP Finals after a championship match defeat to Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in 2023. The Spanish-Argentine team was seeded fifth last year but enter the 2024 finale at the second seeds behind ATP Masters 1000 titles in Rome and Montreal. They will meet seventh seeds Patten and Heliovaara, who won their first Grand Slam title both individually and as a pair at Wimbledon.

The opening doubles match will see third seeds Koolhof and Mektic face fifth-seeded Aussies Purcell and Thompson. Koolhof/Mektic won five titles this season — including at the ATP Masters 1000s in Indian Wells, Shanghai and Paris — while Purcell/Thompson count the US Open doubles crown among their four trophies this season. The Aussies also finished runners-up at Wimbledon.

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