The third-ranked player in the world acknowledged the exceptional competitiveness of the field in the year-end championships. However, he contended that the challenging seven-round, best-of-five set format in Grand Slam events makes securing victories in those tournaments more demanding.

In 2019, Tsitsipas triumphed over Dominic Thiem in the ATP Finals’ final, clinching the title in his debut appearance and having previously defeated Roger Federer in the semi-finals. Despite this initial success, the 25-year-old has not progressed beyond the round-robin stage in his three subsequent appearances, including a withdrawal due to injury after one match in 2021.

Although Tsitsipas has yet to secure a Grand Slam title, he reached the runner-up position at the 2021 French Open and this year’s Australian Open, losing to Novak Djokovic on both occasions.

Speaking ahead of his fifth ATP Finals appearance, Tsitsipas made the controversial claim that he places the season-ending event above the four Grand Slams.

“It’s a whole celebration. The ATP Finals is a commemoration and celebration of the best of the best in our sport. We all gather together and we get to play against each other and focus on the fact that we are the best in the world trying to fight for this mega trophy, which is a grand prize in our sport,” said the Greek.

“It means a lot. I would consider it probably a bigger thing than a Slam, honestly. It has big prestige and it’s a very valuable asset if you’re able to conquer and win it.”

Titled as the Professional Tennis Players Association or PTPA, the association will represent male players as announced in an email. While tennis legends Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have criticized the association for disrupting unity between players, former world’s doubles number one Todd Woodbridge has berated the association for not including women players and for completely missing the mark. 

It’s just poor judgment at this time,” insisted Australian doubles great Woodbridge in a recent interview.

“Everybody’s losing jobs, millions are out of work, tournaments are struggling to stay up and afloat, and the tour’s been trying for the last six months to get back.

But there’s the biggest downfall of all and that’s … where are the women? If you’re going to do this, tennis is the one sport that’s united in the world with equal prize money. Our majors are played together.

This is tone deaf by the group that has decided to break away. The ATP is the players’ representation.

They’ve got their seat at the table; they want more, they want more control of that.

This is the first week back and they throw this sort of bomb out there? I’m pretty disappointed with the way that they’ve gone with that timing.”

World number two Rafael Nadal also tweeted his concerns and called it a “difficult and complicated” time for the world.

“I personally believe these are times to be calm and all work together in the same direction,” said the Spaniard.

“It is time for unity, not for separation. These are moments where big things can be achieved as long as the world of tennis is united.

Players, tournaments and governing bodies have to work together. We have a bigger problem and separation and disunion is definitely not the solution.”

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWZ94jRemmU

“I’ve been nominated by my fellow players, I did not proactively run for council,” Djokovic told reporters after a defeat to Danill Medvedev at the ATP Finals.

“I was saying before and I’m going to say it again: We want to collaborate with ATP, and we want to be able to potentially have a place in the ecosystem, because this is what players deserve,” he added.

“Now, with this rule that has been voted on last night, that actually is a strong message from ATP that they don’t want PTPA at all in the system. So it’s very clear.”

“We are just trying to fight for a better position and better treatment out there in the ecosystem, and that’s all there is. It’s unfortunate really to see that the ATP’s position is such, but OK, now we know where we stand.”

Djokovic went on to clarify his stance in a series of tweets. The current number one made his decision clear and cleared away any doubts surrounding it. 

The tweets read, “As you know, I am part of the PTPA, an organization that was recently created with no intention of being in conflict with the ATP.” 

“The PTPA has yet to be structured with the strategy and long term vision yet to be clearly defined, and although the PTPA has made it clear it does not intend to be combative, it is unclear how the ATP will view the association in the future.”

‘Unfortunately, given these latest developments I feel it is now necessary to remove myself from the list of candidates. I do not wish to create conflict or uncertainty around the player elections or create any issues that may arise. I do this reluctantly and with a heavy heart.” 

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWZ94jRemmU

This year saw a lot of competitive battles in Tennis, with many exhilarating matches between the best of today and the best of yesteryear. The competition was thrilling and kept users at the edge of their seats. 

However, all of these stars got a chance to show their humorous side outside of the court by voting for who is nicest and the best looking of the lot. Bulgarian star Grigor Dimitrov was in favor with all the stars in this regard, as many seem to have picked him out for the laurel. 

In a recent video shared by Tennis TV, stars from across the globe were asked about the best looking player on Tour. Earlier, when these stars were asked about the nicest ATP player, Grigor Dimitrov came out as the surprise winner. However, this time around the Bulgarian was praised by all colleagues and opponents. The funny video saw all of the tennis stars compliment Dimitrov and mention how he is the best in business when it comes to looks. 

While currently all tennis stars are on a vacation to get some well deserved rest, they were part of a video by ATP, talking about the best looking player on Tour. There were no doubts whatsoever for John Isner, Alexander Zverev and Rafael Nadal, all of whom mentioned that Grigor is everyone’s love. Grigor, who is currently dating the beautiful model Nicole Scherzinger, comes from Bulgaria and has attractive facial features. 

Alexander Zverev, who was the ATP winner in London, mentioned that ‘everyone loves Grigor,’ because of how cool and good looking he is.  

Tennis ace Roger Federer was also asked this same question, and he thought about it before picking Jeremy Chardy. Milos Raonic, who was the Wimbledon finalist in 2016, chose Feliciano Lopez as the best looking.

Grigor enjoyed a brilliant 2017, but lost momentum during this year. After a great 2017 that saw him reach a career high ranking of 3^rd, Gregor has now gone all the way down to 19^th. Grigor has prioritized a comeback now and can be seen in Monte Carlo, hitting the courts and the gym concurrently. He is expected to start the 2019 season with a tour of Brisbane soon. 

Those who follow tennis would that Alexander Zverev has made his way to the fourth spot in the ATP rankings, owing to how the likes of Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal had been going through their own injury scares. When you take this into perspective, the fourth spot does not appear to do justice to Zverev’s caliber, considering how he should be featuring much, much lower on the rankings, especially in light of his latest statement.

According to Alexander Zverev, he was glad to not have been drawn in the same group as Rafael Nadal, in the Monte Carlo Masters, considering how he had been defeated by Nadal in the Davis Cup. The reason that Zverev gave to back his statement comprises of how he believes Nadal to be the best tennis player to ever grace the clay court. With such an attitude, it’s no surprise that Zverev has lost the final in Rome in the manner that he has—straight sets.

If Nadal was in his usual fire breathing, a case COULD have been made for backing Zverev’s claim of fear. However, when you consider that Nadal had been out of the court since his hip injury in October, you have got to say that Zverev should have been begging the stars to let him come up against Nadal as early in the competition as possible.

If Zverev is afraid of a Nadal who is just returning from a serious injury, you have got to say that he does not deserve the title of the world’s fourth ranked tennis player, at all. Moreover, Zverev felt that he and Nadal will meet in the finals. Well, we all saw what happened in Rome, didn’t we? Zverev was out of his depth when in the same court as Nadal. Fortune certainly never favors the fearful and those who CHOOSE live under someone’s shadow, even if that someone is as great as Rafael Nadal!

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gry5A8a5ajU

Everything that the ATP has done in the past few weeks has gone wrong! From the ignorance in the organization of the “sexist” and “disgraceful” draw ceremony in Milan to the irresponsible publication of the wrong schedule—it appears as if the ATP can’t get anything right these days.

The ATP has announced that the matches of Group Pete Samparas were scheduled to begin on the 12th of November while those of Group Boris Becker would begin on the 12th of November. In light of the published “news”, a large number of Nadal and Federer fans had bought tickets to the incorrect sessions. Imagine expecting to witness the class of Roger Federer but being greeted instead by the arrogance of Rafael Nadal!

The fact that the players, themselves, were confused by the comedy of errors speaks millions of the irresponsible ATP. And to make matters worse, they got the start timings of the matches wrong as well. Imagine getting up early in the morning to catch a game of tennis at 9am, only to realize that the game doesn’t begin until 2pm. But that’s what happens when the international body for the game of tennis is nothing short of a “liability” for the sport!

(Photo Credit: https://i.eurosport.com

The ceremony was held in Milan and was supposed to have a degree of professionalism maintained. What unveiled was a sexist act put together by the sponsors Red Bull. The ATP and Red Bull had this appalling idea of having players walk down the aisle with a female model who will then reveal the letter A or B somewhere upon her body. The letters represented the group these players would participate in.

One of the players had to lift the skirt of his fellow model to reveal the letter A on her thigh. At this point, the audience was not so sure if the event even remotely belonged to the sport. Andy Murray’s former coach – Amelie Mauresmo – was among the first people to voice it out by tweeting the words, “Disgrace!”. Judy Murray followed by tweeting, “Awful”!

While both Red Bull and ATP have apologized for the event but that does not mean that people would forget the sexist execution of their “futuristic” campaign. The newly proposed event has become a victim of severe backlash. It is highly doubtful it will be able to gather many viewers