The Nitto ATP Finals brought the 2023 ATP Tour season to a grand conclusion. Turin, Italy witnessed an incredible week for hometown hero Jannik Sinner, who won his first four matches inside the Pala Alpitour–including a round-robin upset of Novak Djokovic. In the end, however, the world No. 1’s dominance could not be overcome. Djokovic defeated Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals and then avenged his loss to Sinner by beating the Italian 6-3, 6-3 in the championship match.
Andy Roddick, a former U.S. Open champion (2003) and now a tennis channel analyst and Betway correspondent, recently weighed in on what transpired in Turin. Despite their setbacks against the top-seeded Serb, Alcaraz and Sinner have set themselves up to be wildly successful in 2024 according to Roddick.
“It was a big week for Sinner after a great six months,” Roddick wrote. “He’s now graduated to that stage of being No. 3 or No. 4 in the world and being in the mix every week. All of a sudden, you’re looking at him maybe being able to sneak a major and not feel like you’re projecting too far forward into the future.
“He’s worked on his serve and has gotten a lot stronger after adding muscle to his skinny frame in the last offseason. You used to be able to count on some weird errors in tight situations, but his error counts have dropped. He’s just becoming more and more of a complete player with every month that passes, and closing out tournament wins against big players. If I’m on Sinner’s team, next year can’t get here soon enough–even after a long season.”
Roddick also liked what he saw from Alcaraz. Although the second-ranked Spaniard exited the tournament in the semifinals, expectations were not particularly high for him at the year-end championship given his post-Wimbledon struggles. Alcaraz did not win another title following his triumph at the All-England Club and he did not reach another final after losing to Djokovic at the Cincinnati Masters. As such, the 20-year-old did quite well simply to advance out of the group stage.
“[Turin] wasn’t the best surface for Alcaraz, but the round-robin format was great for him leading into next year,” Roddick explained. “He was on a three-match losing streak after losing the first match and battled back with two really good wins to steady the ship.
“If, at the start of the year, you’d have said, ‘Hey, listen, you’re going to win Wimbledon,’ then I think he takes that without even hearing the rest. There were some bumps in the road towards the end of the year–and maybe he learned some lessons about fitness and timelines at Roland Garros–but all in all what a season it’s been for him.”
Alcaraz could be in line for a big start to the 2024 campaign, during which he will have an opportunity to bring in heaps of ranking points.
“People forget he didn’t play Australia last year because of injury, so he has no points to defend until February,” Roddick noted. “Australia will be a very good surface for him, especially if it gets hot down there. I’m curious to see how that heavy ball he hits, if it gets really warm, is going to jump off that surface.”
Nadal, Raducanu eye comebacks to tennis
The story is a much different one for both Rafael Nadal and Emma Raducanu. They will be heading into 2024 on the heels of long layoffs. Nadal has been sidelined since the Australian Open and is still recovering from June hip surgery. Raducanu last played in April on the red clay of Stuttgart before undergoing wrist surgery in May.
Each champion is aiming to return early in 2024.
“If he is going to play the Australian Open, then I would imagine he’d need to play a lower-level event before to get some matches in,” Roddick said of Nadal. “I think we’re going to work backwards from early May. He’s going to have Roland Garros circled on his calendar to try to attack that event one last time, and every decision that he makes for the next couple of months will have to be in lockstep with the strategy for that tournament.”
As for Raducanu, Roddick had this to say: “I know one thing that has to happen if she’s going to go start playing a slam in Australia: she’s going to have to play something before. There’s going to have to be a 250, I would even like to see her play two events in the lead-up, because there’s just nothing guaranteed. You want those matches. So I’d be curious to see if, in the next 10 days (or) two weeks, we hear anything else about her intended schedule.”
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