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Serbian and Swiss stars to return to London

Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, two of the most successful players in the history of the season finale, have joined World No. 1 Rafael Nadal as qualifiers for the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals, to be held at The O2 in London from 11-18 November.

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Five-time former champion Djokovic clinched his place in the elite field for the 11th time by reaching the US Open final on Friday with victory over Kei Nishikori of Japan, which meant that six-time titlist Federer automatically sealed his spot for a record 16th season as a result of the Grand Slam champion rule. (See explanation below)

The 31-year-old Djokovic made 10 straight appearances at the prestigious season-ending tournament from 2007-2016, compiling a 31-11 record with titles in 2008, 2012-15. He also reached the 2016 final, finishing runner-up to Andy Murray in a match that decided who finished year-end No. 1 in the ATP Rankings.


Djokovic has returned to his peak-performance days in 2018 with his fourth Wimbledon trophy (d. Anderson) in July and a historic first Western & Southern Open title in Cincinnati (d. Federer), which saw him become the first singles player to capture all nine ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crowns in the history of the series (since 1990). Having won 21 of his past 22 matches, the Serbian will play Juan Martin del Potro, who is currently in third in the ATP Race To London, in his seventh US Open final on Sunday.

Federer will make a 16th visit to the season finale, having competed in 2002-15 and 2017, with a 55-13 match record, including titles in 2003-04, 2006-07, 2010-11. He also reached the final on four other occasions, finishing runner-up to David Nalbandian in 2005 and to Djokovic in 2012, ’2014-15.

More than 14 years after he first became No. 1, Federer returned for a six-week stint to the top of the ATP Rankings on 19 February 2018, breaking a number of records — the longest period between stints at No. 1, the oldest player to attain top spot and for the longest duration between first and last days at the summit of men’s professional tennis. He also held the top spot on two other occasions, in the week beginning 14 May (one week) and from 18 June (one week), for 310 weeks overall.


The 37-year-old Swiss retained the Australian Open crown (d. Cilic) in January, marking his 20th Grand Slam championship trophy, and the following month he captured the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament title in Rotterdam (d. Dimitrov), after which he returned to No. 1 for the first time since 4 November 2012. Federer picked up the 98th trophy of his career at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart (d. Raonic), and also finished runner-up at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (l. to Del Potro), which broke a 17-match winning streak, the Gerry Weber Open in Halle (l. to Coric) and in Cincinnati.

Del Potro is the next in line to qualify for the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals, which would mark his first appearance at The O2 in London since 2013. Alexander Zverev of Germany, Croatia’s Marin Cilic, Kevin Anderson of South Africa and Austria’s Dominic Thiem hold down the fifth through eighth spots in the ATP Race To London.

The Nitto ATP Finals welcomes more than 250,000 fans to The O2 arena annually, as well as generating global viewership figures reaching an average of 95 million viewers each year, as the ATP’s best eight singles players and doubles teams compete over eight days at the biggest indoor tennis tournament in the world.

Why Does Federer Qualify?
Once Djokovic set a US Open final with Del Potro, Federer clinched his berth because of the 'Grand Slam Champion rule', which reserves one place in the eight-man field for a current-year Grand Slam champion who finishes between Nos. 8-20 in the ATP Race To London. Federer, the reigning Australian Open champion, may finish in the Top 7 and not need to lean on that rule to qualify. But he is guaranteed to finish the year in the Top 20 of the Race.

If Djokovic wins the US Open final, then Federer is the only Grand Slam champion not already guaranteed of finishing in the Top 7. If Del Potro wins the US Open final, the Argentine will have enough points in the Race to qualify on points alone, again leaving Federer as the only Grand Slam champion not already with enough points to guarantee a Top 7 finish. But the Swiss would still be guaranteed of finishing within the Top 20.

More Stories Like This In: Nitto ATP Finals Tournament News 2018 Media Releases Press Releases Novak Djokovic Roger Federer

Here's what you need to know about the different leaderboards
It’s that time of the year again when the attention of the tennis world begins to focus on who will qualify for Nitto ATP Finals. Only this season’s best eight singles players and doubles teams will compete at the world's biggest indoor tennis event, to be held at London’s iconic O2 arena from 11-18 November.

Players earn their place at the season finale by finishing in the Top 8 of the ATP Race To London on 5 November, when the ATP World Tour regular season concludes after the Rolex Paris Masters. The Race is a calendar-year points race that starts at the beginning of each ATP World Tour season. The players who win titles in Brisbane, Doha and Pune typically will share the Race lead after the first week of the season.

Rankings vs Race
Throughout the season a player adds his best eligible results from up to 18 tournaments to his Race points tally. Winning a prestigious ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title earns the champion 1000 points. Titles at ATP World Tour 500 and 250-level tournaments return 500 points and 250 points, respectively. Players who don’t win the title still earn points based on how far they advance in the draw.

The Race differs from the ATP Rankings, the historical world rankings. A player’s ranking is determined by his best 18 tournament results over the preceding 52 weeks. A high ranking is needed to get into the world’s best tournaments and rankings also determine if a player is seeded. Rafael Nadal is known as the World No. 1 because he sits atop the rankings. Dominic Thiem is known as a Top 10 player because he is No. 8 in the rankings.

More often than not, a player’s Race standing is different to his ranking. For example, Kevin Anderson is seventh in the Race but ninth in the Rankings because he has enjoyed relatively more success in 2017 than over the longer time period of the past 52 weeks.

In the latter part of the season, a player’s focus turns to his position in the Race because it becomes an accurate predictor of what the player’s year-end ranking will be. And, of course, the Race determines who makes it to London.

Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer are the three players who have already booked their spots at The O2. In doubles, one team – Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic – has booked its spots.

Editor’s notes: Strictly speaking, the Race begins in mid November of the preceding season (the week after the Rolex Paris Masters). Results at the Nitto ATP Finals are excluded, but players competing in late-season ATP Challenger Tour events earn points that count towards the next season’s ATP Race To London.

Officially, only the Top 7 in the Race are guaranteed places at the season finale. The eighth place is reserved for a Grand Slam champion positioned between 8th and 20th in the Race. Federer, who mathematically is not yet guaranteed to finish in the Top 7 in this year’s Race, qualified for London as this year's Wimbledon champion (Nadal and Djokovic won the other three majors, and were mathematically assured of finishing in the Top 7). That made him a current-year Grand Slam champion who mathematically cannot fall outside the Top 20 in the Race. If all Grand Slam champions of the current year are positioned in the Top 8 of the Race after Paris, then the Top 8 players in the Race qualify.

For the third straight year, Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares have lifted a hat trick of titles on the ATP World Tour. The British-Brazilian team, which has reached five tour-level finals in 2018, started the season strong with a runner-up finish on their first outing in Doha and has continued to impress throughout the year.

With a maiden ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title to their names and two further crowns at 500-level, Murray and Soares are well placed to make their third consecutive trip to the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals, to be held 11-18 November at The O2 in London. The 2016 and 2017 semi-finalists, currently occupying fifth place in the ATP Doubles Race To London, have compiled a 33-14 record this season.

Following on from their opening-week final appearance at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open (l. to Marach/Pavic), Murray and Soares fell to a Round of 32 defeat at the Australian Open. A final-set tie-break loss cut short their attempts to claim a second title in three years at Melbourne Park, but Murray and Soares recovered well, with strong performances in February.

After a semi-final showing in Rio de Janeiro, the duo picked up their first trophy of the season in Acapulco. Murray and Soares did not drop a set en route to successfully defending their crown, beating Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan in the championship match.

After a disappointing clay-court season, Murray and Soares reached their third final of the season at the grass-court Fever-Tree Championships, defeating top-seeded Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic en route to the championship match. They followed that final run with another trip to the Wimbledon quarter-finals, their second in three years.



But Murray and Soares' best results were still to come, with the third-year pairing recording 11 wins from 13 matches on the hard courts of North America. The Acapulco titlists added two further trophies to their collection, firstly at the Citi Open and then again at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, where the fourth seeds captured their first Masters 1000 crown.

“For me to win my first Masters [1000] is obviously really exciting,” said Murray. “[It was an] awesome week for us. To win the matches that we did against top teams that are probably going to play in London… We played really good in the important moments and kept it together well.”

“It means a lot. That is what we play tennis for, to win the big ones,” said Soares. “We’re playing great. We’ve been playing great since we got to D.C., and I’m extremely happy with everything. [It is the] first title for us at a [Masters] 1000 event, hopefully we can get many more.”

After reaching the US Open quarter-finals in New York without dropping a set, Murray and Soares looked well placed to challenge for their third Grand Slam trophy. But a shock loss to unseeded pairing Radu Albot and Malek Jaziri brought their campaign to an abrupt end.

But Murray and Soares look set to make it three consecutive years of qualifying at the Nitto ATP Finals in November. The question is, if they get there, could they make it third time lucky and advance beyond the final-four stage?