The ATP Next Gen Finals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has its round-robin field.
Favorite and world No. 20 Arthur Fils of France will play the Czech, Jakub Mensik; American Learner Tien and Brazilian starlet Joao Fonseca in the group stages, with American and No. 2 qualifier Alex Michelsen drawn against China’s Shang Juncheng; another Frenchman in Luca Van Assche and a third American in the draw, Nishesh Basavareddy.
Fils and Shang have both won ATP Tour titles. Fils won the ATP 500s in Tokyo and Hamburg, Germany in 2024, while Shang won his first-and-only title to date in Chengdu, China, at a 250-level event.
Tien put together a 28-match winning streak on the Challenger circuit between May and July, which earned him a wildcard into the 2024 U.S. Open. Basavareddy just earned a wildcard into the 2025 Australian Open, while Michelsen reached two ATP tournament finals in 2024 and Fonseca reached the quarterfinals of the 500-level Rio de Janeiro Open in February after receiving a wildcard into the event.
The ATP Next Gen Finals begins December 18, with four matches per day, two in the Jeddah afternoon from 11 a.m. GMT / 6 a.m. ET and two in the Jeddah evening from 4 p.m. GMT / 11 a.m. ET. The final is December 22.
ATP Next Gen Finals: Blue Group
| Player | Age | World ranking | ‘Race to Jeddah’ ranking |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Arthur Fils |
20 |
20 |
1 |
|
Jakub Mensik |
19 |
48 |
3 |
|
Learner Tien |
19 |
122 |
5 |
|
Joao Fonseca |
18 |
145 |
8 |
ATP Next Gen Finals: Group B
| Player | Age | World ranking | ‘Race to Jeddah’ ranking |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Alex Michelsen |
20 |
41 |
2 |
|
Shang Juncheng |
19 |
50 |
4 |
|
Luca Van Assche |
20 |
128 |
6 |
|
Nishesh Basavareddy |
19 |
138 |
7 |
How does the ATP Next Gen Finals draw work?
The eight players who qualified were split into four pairs for the draw. The first pair is is No. 1 and No. 2, the second is No. 3 and No. 4, and so on.
These seedings follow the players’ rankings in the ‘ATP Race to Jeddah,’ the table which only counts ranking points earned in 2024.
No. 1 (Arthur Fils) and No. 2 (Alex Michelsen) were drawn into Group A and Group B respectively. The remaining three pairs were then allocated a spot at random, pair-by-pair.
What is the format for the ATP Next Gen Finals?
Each player plays three round-robin matches, before the top two in each group contest the semifinals with 1st in Group A playing 2nd in Group B and visa versa.
Each match is best of five sets, but the first player to win four games wins the set, rather than the usual six, and a tiebreak is played at 3-3 instead of 6-6. The tiebreaks are first to seven points with a two-point winning margin — 7-4, 7-5, 8-6, 9-7, etc.
The event also uses ‘No-Ad’ scoring. At 40-40, the receiver chooses to return from the deuce court or the ad court and the two players play a deciding point. There are also no lets, a feature of American college tennis in which a serve that hits the net but lands in the correct service box counts as a live ball.
The shot clock between points, which has been a contentious issue on the ATP Tour in 2024, is also different to the main tour. If a point is fewer than three shots, the usual 25-second time between points is reduced to 15 seconds, with eight seconds allowed between the first and second serve at all times.
Who won last year’s tournament?
Hamad Medjedovic defeated Fils, 3–4(6–8), 4–1, 4–2, 3–4(9–11), 4–1 to win the 2023 event, for which players 21-and-under were eligible. 2024 is the first event for which only players 20-and-under are eligible, so Medjedovic cannot defend his title.
How much prize money is there?
Each of the eight players gets $150,000 (£118,800) just for participating. A round-robin match win is worth $36,660 (£29,000); a semifinal win earns $113,500 (£89,900) and victory in the final is worth $153,000 (£121,200). If the eventual champion goes undefeated, they will take home $526,480 (£417,000).
(Top photo of Arthur Fils: Adam Pretty / Getty Images)
