Wrapping Up 2022 - Part 1

 Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals
Allianz Cloud Arena
Milan, Italy
November 8 - 12, 2022

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan. It is Italy's oldest active shopping gallery and a major landmark of Milan. Housed within a four-story double arcade in the center of town, the Galleria is names after Vctor Emmanuel II, the first king of the Kingdom of Italy (I didn't even know Italy had a kingdom - Sigh!) It was designed in 1861and built by architect Giuseppe Mengoni between 1865and 1877

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Congrats to ATP Paris Masters and WTA Finals Champions! Expectations were somewhat blown away by the winners and it seems the teen takeover of ATP continues! Kudos winners!

ATP Paris Masters

Singles: Holger Rune
Doubles: N. Skupski/W. Koolkhof

WTA Championship

Singles: Caroline Garcia
Doubles: E. Mertens/V. Kudermetova

Next Gen ATP Finals

Surface: Hard indoor

Draw: Singles 8

The tournament was established in 2017 but was not held in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

Eligible players must be 21 or under at the beginning of the year.

2021 Champion: Carlos Alcaraz, who withdrew before the tourney began. Defeated Sebastian Korda

The players are divided into two groups of four. The top two from each group advance to the semi-finals. Matches are played best of five sets and first-to-four games. 

Changes this year: Each year the tournament experiments with changes to the format. This year the changes include:

• Quicker shot clock, down from 25 to 15 seconds following an ace, double fault or unreturned serve.
• Just one sit-down per set.
• Off-court coaching – in-match and during an opponent’s medical time out or toilet break.
• Enhanced analytics, delivered in-match to the coaches.

Groups: Currently these are the two groups, subject to change depending on withdrawals.

(l-r) Francesco Passaro, Chun-Hsin Tseng, Brandon Nakashima, Lorenzo Musetti, Jack Draper, Jiri Lehecka, Dominic Stricker and Matteo Arnaldi 

Group Green: Matteo Arnaldi, (Italy), Brandon Nakashima (USA), Jiri Lehecka (Czech Republic), Francesco Passaro (Italy)

Group Red: Lorenzo Musetti (Italy), Jack Draper (Great Britain), Chun-Hsin Tseng (Taipei), Dominic Stricker (Switzerland)

The players hail from a wide variety of countries, only Italy has more than one player taking part.

Withdrawals: Holger Rune, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner

The Next Gen Finals provide an excellent opportunity to see some of the up-and-coming younger players. Tournament winners often go on to considerable success on the main tour. For example, Carlos Alcaraz won this year’s USO and is currently No.1 in the rankings. Jannik Sinner, the 2019 champion, has won six main tour titles and is ranked No.15.

Singles Draw
OOP

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Okay so I became intrigued by the title of this tourney - Next Gen - and decided to look up the Next Gen profile.  Ha we should be calling them Gen Z.  After further research I understand Gen Zers are also referred to as Zoomers!  How appropriate!  Anyhoo am sure all of us on here - some with shaky hips and knees and slivers of silver know exactly where we fall.  In case you don't the chart below helps.  Enjoy!  Yeah yeah I know next gen simply refers to the generation up and coming every what 15 years? Sigh!  All of a sudden Generation X seems.......so far back😏😲🙄😎

Thank you Hartt for the background info on the tourney.  As always you make us look good.