Saturated with the Off-Season and reruns? Don’t be afraid, great tennis is about to make its returnfocusing attention on the eight best young people on the planet. The seventh edition of Next Gen ATP Finals is now about to begin, even if, for the first time in its history, no blue will represent the tricolor in the Saudi expedition. Don’t worry, the very talented Under 20s and the “particular” rules of the Finals will certainly put on a great show, quickly taking the painful blue note into oblivion.
Let’s get to the point. The first Round-Robin match will start at 2:00 pm local time and then at 12:00 Italian time today Wednesday 18 Decemberand will feature protagonists Juncheng Shang e Luca Van Asschein a completely new challenge. The Chinese tennis player and the French player will open the dance for this special seventh edition of the Finals, in which they will be well present four athletes in the Top 50: a record for a tournament that in the past had always seen some defections among the qualifiers – the rich Arab prize money may have made the difference in this sense.
Shang and Van Assche will have to quickly become familiar with the innovations in the regulation (all the news here), in itself already quite distant from the normal tennis format. THE “short” four-game sets and the killer point sul 40-40 they immediately require the maximum concentration of the athletes on the field, in a competition that greatly favors the spectacle and the involvement of the public present. Speaking of this, the legend Rafa Nadal will appear in the stands of the central court in Jeddah during the tournament, having become an ambassador of Arab tennis, who arrived in the Saudi city to enjoy the spectacle of the Next Gen Finals.
After the opening match between Van Assche and Shang, it will follow – not before 1pm Italian (3:00 pm local time) – the US derby between Alex Michelsen e Nishesh Basavareddydirect rivals of the French and the Chinese in Group B. The predictions predict a lot Michelsen and Shang had an advantage over their respective opponentson the basis of the excellent 2024 played by both. Van Assche, on the other hand, has just returned from a rather negative season with almost 40 positions lost in the ranking and exit from the top 100. A different story for Basavereddy, who has grown exponentially in the second part of 2024.
Equally sparkling and spectacular will be the evening session on Wednesday 18 December in Jeddah, where we will attend the two Group A matches. The first to take to the field, at 5pm Italian (7 p.m. local) will be the Czech Jakub Mensik and the American Learner Tien. The two very young people, both born in 2005, they have never clashed beforeand in the splendid port city of Arabia, the first act will take place. Talent proliferates: on one side of the court a left-handed, two-handed player with class and phenomenal shots, Tien. On the other, the fearless young man of Prostejov, who turns his power into a lethal weapon, Jakub Mensikthe ATP “newcomer” of the year.
If you think that this fantastic day of tennis is over, you are very wrong. Sweet at the bottom, Fonseca vs Fils. This challenge – on the pitch following the previous match – between two crystal-clear talents on the circuit, he would need no introduction, but it is still necessary to do so. The only precedent between the Brazilian and the French dates back to about ten months ago, when, a Rio de Janeiroin the home of Joao Fonsecathe latter trimmed a 6-0 6-4 to the class of 2004 of the suburb of Saint-Michel-Sur-Orge, achieving his first success on the major circuit. Fils, most likely, will have tied his finger to that humiliating first set last February, and who knows? Jeddahas number one in the Finals, wants to stage his revenge against the youngest in the class…
The matches will be broadcast live by Sky Sport (streaming on Now TV).
