Monday features the completion of the first round in round-robin play.
Carlos Alcaraz doubled his Major tally during 2024, winning his third and fourth Major titles. But it’s been an up-and-down season for the Spaniard, with some early losses at big events, including his second round exit at the US Open. In his opening match of the 2024 ATP Finals, Carlitos faces Casper Ruud in a rematch of the 2022 US Open final.
Day 2’s other singles match sees two-time ATP Finals champion Alexander Zverev take on Andrey Rublev, who has not reached a final in his four previous appearances at this event.
Each day, this preview will analyze the most intriguing matchup, while highlighting the other matches on the schedule. Monday’s play begins at 11:30am local time.
Carlos Alcaraz (3) vs. Casper Ruud (6) – Not Before 2:00pm local time
Alcaraz is 52-11 this season, with four titles (Indian Wells, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, Beijing). Yet during 2024, he also suffered the most crushing defeat of his career: losing the gold medal match of the Paris Olympics to Novak Djokovic. In his ATP Finals debut a year ago, Carlitos advanced to the semifinals, where he was also defeated by Djokovic.
Ruud has reached the semifinals in both of his previous appearances at this event, including when he went all the way to the final in 2022, when he lost to… you guessed it: Djokovic. Ruud failed to qualify for the ATP finals in 2023, but returns in 2024 thanks to a strong first half of the season, collecting 39 match wins between January and June. However, the second half of the season has been a completely different story. Casper has a losing record since Wimbledon, and arrives in Turin having alarmingly lost eight of his last nine matches.
And Ruud is a dispiriting 0-4 against Alcaraz, and has only claimed one set across those four encounters. So despite Casper’s winning record at this event, Carlitos is a considerable favorite to prevail on Monday, especially on a fast-playing indoor hard court, which is rarely to Ruud’s liking.
Other Notable Matches on Monday:
Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic (1) vs. Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz (8) – Arevalo and Pavic won Roland Garros this season, as well as Cincinnati. They hold a very narrow lead over Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the race for the year-end No.1 ranking, and they come into this tournament on a four-match losing streak. Arevalo and Pavic have not won a match since losing to Krawietz and Puetz in an extremely tight US Open semifinal.
Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori (4) vs. Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden (6) – Bolelli and Vavassori claimed three titles during 2024, and were finalists at Roland Garros. Bopanna and Ebden won the Australian Open back in January, as well as the Miami Open in March. In the semifinals of Roland Garros, the Italians defeated Bopanna and Ebden in three sets.
Alexander Zverev (2) vs. Andrey Rublev (8) – Following Sunday’s results, Zverev is now tied with Jannik Sinner with a tour-leading 66 match wins this season. The German is 6-3 against Rublev, though Andrey has taken three of their last four meetings.
Monday’s full Order of Play is here.
