The Draw Ceremony of the round robin group of the Next Gen ATP Finals was held on Saturday evening at the Lavazza Flagship Store in Milan.
The eight players were split in two round robin groups. The Group A is headlined by top seed Alex De Minaur from Australia, who finished runner-up to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final of last year’s edition of the Next Gen ATP Finals. De Minaur has been drawn against Norway’s Casper Ruud, Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic and Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Second seed Frances Tiafoe leads Group B, which also features France’s Ugo Humbert, Sweden’s Mikail Ymer and Italian 18-year-old wild card Jannik Sinner.
The third edition of the Next Gen Finals will start on Tuesday 5th November at the Allianz Cloud in Milan. Ruud will face Kecmanovic in the opening match of the afternoon session. De Minaur will play against Davidovich Fokina in the second match of the Group A. The night session opens with the match between Humbert and Ymer, followed by Tiafoe playing against Sinner.
Group A Preview:
De Minaur is the highest-ranked player in the field at number 18 in the ATP Ranking. He has never anyone in the Group A in an ATP Group Main Draw. De Minaur, Ruud and Kecmanovic have all reached ATP Tour finals during the 2019 season.
“It’s a tough draw. Both players are equally good. Everybody is playing well and have had the best years of their careers, so it’s going to be tough”,said Miomir Kecmanovic to the ATP Tour website.
De Minaur started his 2019 season by clinching the home tournament at the Sydney International. He became the youngest Sydney International champion since Australian star Lleyton Hewitt, who won the home tournament in 2001 at the age of 19.
De Minaur clinched two more ATP Tour titles on hard-court at the Atlanta Open and in Zhuhai and finished runner-up to home star Roger Federer in the Swiss Indoors Open in Basel.
Twenty-year-old Serbian player Miomir Kecmanovic qualified for the Next Gen Finals following the withdrawal of Canada’s Felix Auger Aliassime. Kecmanovic started playing tennis at the age of six. His idols were his compatriot Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. Miomir trains at the IMG Academy in Bradenton.
Kecmanovic started the year at number 131 in the ATP Ranking and achieved his goal last March when he broke into the top 100. He reached his career high at world number 47 last September and finished runner-up to Lorenzo Sonego in the Antalya final and achieved the biggest win of his career in Cincinnati last August when he beat Alexander Zverev before losing to Roberto Bautista Agut in the third round. He also reached two quarter finals at Indian Wells and Atlanta.
Casper Ruud has been playing tennis since he was four years old, when his father and coach Christian introduced him to this sport. As a player on the ATP Tour Christian Ruud reached a career-high of number 39 in the ATP Ranking and reached the final in Bastad in 1995 and the the fourth round at the 1997 Australian Open. Casper played the final in Houston last April and reached his career-high of number 54 last August. He also advanced to the semifinals at Sao Paulo and Kitzbuhel. Casper started playing tennis at the age of 4. His idol growing up was Rafael Nadal. He is the highest-ranked Norwegian player since his father Christian. He became the youngest Houston finalist at the age of 20 since 19-year-old Andy Roddick in 2002.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina will replace this week’s Paris Bercy finalist Denis Shapovalov, who withdrew from the Milan tournament due to fatigue. Davidovich Fokina started the 2019 season at world number 237 and broke into the world number 100 for the first time two weeks ago. Alejandro was born in La Cala del Moral about 10 km far from Malaga. His father Edvard, a former boxer, has Swedish and Russian double nationality. His mother Tatiana is Russian.
Davidovich Fokina executed his favourite drop-shot to beat Gael Monfils to reach the semifinals at the Estoril Open before losing to Pablo Cuevas. Davidovich Fokina became the youngest Spanish player to reach an ATP Tour semifinal since 19-year Rafa Nadal.
Group B
Italian rising star Jannik Sinner will start his Milan campaign on Tuesday evening against Frances Tiafoe. Sinner recently beat Tiafoe in a three-set quarter final to reach his first semifinal on the ATP Tour in Antwerp. He got through the qualifying round at last August’s US Open, where he lost to Stan Wawrinka in four sets in the first round.
The Italian 18-year-old player became the first player born in 2001 or later to win an ATP Challenger Tour title in Bergamo. He also won another Challenger title in Lexington and reached the final in Ostrava. He won ITF World Tour titles in Trento and Santa Margerita di Pula.
Sinner made a winning ATP Tour debut in Budapest as lucky loser and saved a match point in his ATP Masters 1000 debut to beat Steve Johnson in Rome before losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round. Sinner chose tennis over skiing at the age of 13 and left Sesto Pusteria to train in Bordighera under the guidance of Andrea Volpini, Riccardo Piatti and Massimo Sartori.
“I am still the youngest player in Milan. Most of the time the pressure is a bit lower because I am playing against much older players. The pressure is going to be higher here, but that’s our job. You just have to try and do your best. It’s exciting to be here. It’s a bit of a different format, different rules, so anything can happen. Sometimes the pressure of playing in Italy is not easy, but I can handle it. Something changed in Bergamo. I played good there, gained confidence and have kept going. I think the Next Generation is growing and that’s important for tennis. It’s going to be interesting”,said Sinner.
Frances Tiafoe has qualified for the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan for the second consecutive year. At last January’s Australian Open Frances beat Kevin Anderson, Andreas Seppi and Grigor Dimitrov to reach his first Grand Slam quarter final. A last March’s Miami Open Tiafoe beat Spanish legend David Ferrer, who was playing his farewell match. He went to beat 2017 ATP Finals ruuner-up David Goffin before losing to Denis Shapovalov in the quarter final. Frances Tiafoe’s father Frances Senior was the Head of Maintenance at the Junior tennis Champions Center Park in Maryland. Frances and his twin brother Franklin began to play there against a wall at the age of three. Outside the tennis court Tiafoe is a big fan of NBA basketball team Washington Wizards and NBA superstar Lebron James.
Ugo Humbert reached a career-high of number 46 last July. At last summer’s Wimbledon he beat Canadian Next Gen player Felix Auger Aliassime to reach the fourth round for the first time in his career in a Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon, before losing to Novak Djokovic in the Round of 16. Last October Humbert reached the semifinal at the European Open in Antwerp.
Humbert relaxes after a day of training by playing piano 30 to 45 minutes every day. He started playing piano when he was five years old.
Mikael Ymer is the son of former Ethiopian professional distance runner Wondwosen Ymer, who now works an industry worker. Mikael’s older brother Elias is also an ATP professional player and is ranked world number 130. Their parents left war-torn Ethiopia in the 1980s to start a new life in Sweden. Mikael won two ATP Challenger titles in Orleans after beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the semifinal, and in Mouilleron Le Captif one week later. He qualified for his first Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros and won his first Major match before losing to Alexander Zverev in the second round.
“The draw speaks for itself. It’s all of the best players of our age, so it’s going to be a big challenge”, said Ymer.
