Medvedev Extends Live Race Lead With Rome Title

Daniil Medvedev leaves Rome with a healthy lead in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin after claiming his first clay-court title on the ATP Tour.

The 27-year-old, who passed Carlos Alcaraz in the Live Race when he reached the Internazionali BNL d’Italia quarter-finals, now leads the 20-year-old Spaniard by 845 points. Medvedev is 1,555 points ahead of third-placed Novak Djokovic.

Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin (after Rome)

The Rome champion has made an early statement in the battle for year-end ATP No. 1 presented by Pepperstone, which he is trying to claim for the first time. Medvedev ascended to World No. 1 last year, but he has not yet claimed year-end No. 1 honours.

Alcaraz became the youngest year-end No. 1 last year aged 19. Now 20, he is once again in the heat of the battle, as is Djokovic, who holds the record of year-end No. 1 finishes with seven.

Of the Top 8 players in the Live Race, six of them competed in last year’s Nitto ATP Finals. Fourth-placed Stefanos Tsitsipas, sixth-placed Andrey Rublev and eighth-placed Taylor Fritz played at the Pala Alpitour last November.

Fifth-placed Jannik Sinner competed in the season finale as an alternate in 2021 and seventh-placed Holger Rune was an alternate last year. Rune climbed two places during the season’s final clay-court Masters 1000 event by advancing to the final. The 20-year-old is trying to earn his place in the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time.

There are four players within 595 points of Fritz, who currently holds the final qualifying spot for the year-end championships. Those players are Karen Khachanov, Cameron Norrie, Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe. From that group, only Norrie has previously played a match at the season finale.

Casper Ruud, who reached the championship match in Turin last year, surged nine places to 15th in the Live Race by advancing to the Rome semi-finals. The Norwegian is trying to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the third consecutive year.

Plenty can change in the coming weeks, with ATP 250 events this week in Geneva and Lyon ahead of Roland Garros, where one player will earn 2,000 points. This year’s season finale will be held from 12-19 November in Turin at the Pala Alpitour.