Thursday 28 December 2023

2023 ATP Tour year in review

For men, the ATP Tour began 2023 with the top ten as follows:

  1. Carlos Alcaraz
  2. Rafael Nadal 
  3. Casper Ruud 
  4. Stefanos Tsitsipas 
  5. Novak Djokovic 
  6. Felix Auger-Aliassime
  7. Daniil Medvedev 
  8. Andrey Rublev 
  9. Taylor Fritz 
  10. Hubert Hurkacz 

In lead up to the Australian Open, Novak Djokovic and Kwon Soon-woo won in Adelaide and Tallon Griekspoor won his first ATP Tour tournament in Pune. Additionally, Richard Gasquet won in Auckland 

Djokovic, after missing a year, continued his love affair with Melbourne and won his tenth Australian Open, defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final.

He regained the number one ranking.


Rafael Nadal lost in the second round, suffering a hip injury in the process.

This would keep him out of tennis for the rest of the year.

On 20 March he would exit the top ten after 912 consecutive weeks spent there.


Australians won the Men’s Doubles for the second straight year, this time the pair was Jason Kubler and Rinky Hijikata.


The Davis Cup qualifying round was played in the first few days of February in 12 different countries with the 12 winners progressing to the finals group stage in September.


The rest of February included tournaments on hard court and red clay.

Daniil Medvedev won 3 times in the month.

The hard court winners were Jannik Sinner in Montpellier (250), Wu Yibing in Dallas (250), Daniil Medvedev in Rotterdam (500), Doha (250), and Dubai (500), Taylor Fritz in Delray Beach (250), Hubert Hurkacz in Marseille (250), and Alex de Minaur in Acapulco (500).


Wu Yibing was a first time winner - he defeated top seed Taylor Fritz in the semis and fifth seed John Isner in the final.


Clay court winners were Sebastian Baez in Córdoba (250), Carlos Alcaraz in Buenos Aires (250), Cameron Norrie in Rio de Janeiro (500) where he defeated Alcaraz in the final, and Nicolas Jarry in Santiago (250).


Indian Wells in March was the first of the Masters 1000 tournaments for 2023 and Carlos Alcaraz triumphed over Daniil Medvedev. A third Masters 1000 title for the young Spaniard.

Next he would attempt to defend his 2022 Miami Open title, another Masters event.

Here he was beaten in the semis by Jannik Sinner, who in turn was the loser to Daniil Medvedev in the final.

A fourth title for Medvedev already in 2023.


Sinner had now cracked the top ten for the first time.

Medvedev up to #4.


April saw the clay court season begin, signalling the warm up for Roland Garros.

Frances Tiafoe collected a trophy in Houston (250), Roberto Carballes Baena in Morocco (250), Casper Ruud in Estoril (250), Holger Rune in Munich (250), and Dusan Lajovic in Banja Luka (250), 


Also, although he lost in the Banja Luka final, Andrey Rublev took out the Masters 1000 tournament in Monte Carlo, defeating Rune.

Carlos Alcaraz had an impact, winning both iBarcelona (500) and the Madrid Masters 1000.


Madrid finished in May which then saw the final entree to the clay court major.

Daniil Medvedev vanquished all to win the Italian Open, another Masters 1000 trophy, Holger Rune beaten finalist in his past two Masters 1000 finals.


Nicolas Jarry picked up his second title for the year in Geneva (250), and France had reason to celebrate as its teenage player Arthur Fils was a first time champion in his homeland - Lyon (250).


Roland Garros saw Carlos Alcaraz back at number one and Daniil Medvedev ranked second.

This meant a possible semi final between Alcaraz and third ranked Djokovic.

It did eventuate, and Alcaraz levelled at a set all. However, the top seed fell apart physically, leaving Djokovic to sweep up the pieces and win in four sets.


The final was against Casper Ruud who lost the previous year’s final against Alacaraz. He lost again, here to Djokovic, the Serb claiming a third major on the red dust, and again the #1 spot.


Grass court season began in June, and unofficially the warm up for Wimbledon.

Frances Tiafoe won in Stuttgart (250), Tallon Griekspoor in Rosmalen (250), Alexander Bublik in Halle (500), Carlos Alcaraz in Queen’s Club, London (500), Christopher Eubanks in Mallorca (250), and Francisco Cerundolo in Eastbourne (250).

It was the first time ATP Tour title for Eubanks.

Tiafoe entered the top ten for the first time.


The Wimbledon final in July featured the top two seeds in a five set battle.

Defending champion Djokovic was dethroned by Carlos Alcaraz whose sixth trophy for the year was also his second Grand Slam tournament victory.


The remainder of July saw the following:

On grass Adrian Mannarino won in Newport (250).

On clay Andrey Rublev won in Bastad (250), Pedro Cachin won his first ATP Tour title in Gstaad (250), Alexander Zverev won in Hamburg (500), Alexei Popyrin won in Umag,(250), and Sebastian Baez won in Kitzbühel (250).

On hard courts, Taylor Fritz won in Atlanta (250), Daniel Evans won in Washington D.C. (500), and Stefanos Tsitsipas won in Los Cabos (250).


August, and the North American hard court swing.

Jannik Sinner won his first Masters 1000 title with the Canadian Open.

Novak Djokovic followed with victory in the Cincinnati Open, which was also Masters 1000 number 39 for his record.

In the final event before the US Open, Sebastian Baez won his third title for the year in Winston-Salem.


The US Open began at the end of August, and the final gave Novak Djokovic the chance to avenge in some way the loss to Daniil Medvedev in 2021 which cost him his calendar year Grand Slam.

Djokovic took the opportunity and won in straight sets.

Third major for the year, and number 24 in his career.


September, and the group stage of the Davis Cup Finals.

Eight nations progressed to the November playoffs:

Canada, Great Britain, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Italy, Australia, Serbia, Finland.

Alexander Zverev won in Chengdu (250), Karen Khachanov in Zhuhai (250), Jannik Sinner in Beijing (500), and Adrian Mannarino in Astana (250).


In October:

Hubert Hurkacz won the Masters 1000 title in Shanghai.

Ben Shelton won his first ATP Tour title in Tokyo (500).

Alexander Bublik won the European Open in Antwerp (250).

Gaël Monfils won the Stockholm Open (250).

Felix Auger-Aliassime won in Basel (500).

Jannik Sinner won in Vienna (500).

Novak Djokovic won his 40th Masters 1000 tournament in Paris.


The season came to an end in November and French player Ugo Humbert finished well with victory in Metz (250).

Another win for France with its player Adrian Mannarino victorious in Sofia (250).


The ATP Finals in Turin gave crowds the chance to see the years best 8 players fight for glory.

Despite losing to Jannik Sinner in a round robin match, Novak Djokovic remained unbeaten in his next matches, including the final, against Sinner.


The title was number seven in ATP Finals for Djokovic, and he ended the year number one for a record eighth time.


The top ten at season end: (movement from year start in brackets)

  1. Novak Djokovic (+4)
  2. Carlos Alcaraz (-1)
  3. Daniil Medvedev (+4)
  4. Jannik Sinner (+11)
  5. Andrey Rublev (+3)
  6. Stefanos Tsitsipas (-2)
  7. Alexander Zverev (+5)
  8. Holger Rune (+3)
  9. Hubert Hurkacz (+1)
  10. Taylor Fritz (-1)

Finally, Italy defeated Australia in the final of the Davis Cup, and Hamad Medjedovic defeated Arthur Fils in the Next Gen ATP Finals.

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