The ATP Finals in Turin remain the crown jewel of the men’s tennis season, featuring the year’s top eight performers. While the 2025 calendar has been packed with drama, with established stars and rising forces clashing week after week, the race to Turin is heating up—and some household names find themselves in danger of missing out on the season-ending showpiece.

The tournament was first held in 1970, shortly after the beginning of the Open Era. Novak Djokovic (7) currently holds the record for the most singles titles. However, his last title triumph in this tournament came in 2023. In that year, while sharing his thoughts about this tournament, he said, “It's the pinnacle of ATP Tour. Other than Slams, this is the biggest tournament we have in the sport. And the best eight players in the world worked very hard the entire year. All the players who qualify for this event, it's a great privilege.”

He claimed that one needs to be at their best every single match because every single match is played at the quality of probably the finals of the Masters 1000 events. This year, the current world number one, Carlos Alcaraz, and the defending champion, Jannik Sinner, had already qualified for this event.

Alcaraz secured his qualification on July 8, while Sinner did it a month later. This year’s tournament is all set to take place at the Inalpi Arena in Turin, Italy, from 9 November to 16 November. So, who all are leading the race to reach the ATP Finals this year?

If we further go down that list, Jack Draper is currently sitting at the ninth spot with just 2,990 points, while Felix Auger-Aliassime sits at the tenth spot with 2,705 points. Now that's been covered, let's find out some big names who could probably miss this year's mega tennis event.

1. Jack Draper

Draper has been in red-hot form this season. Currently ranked seventh in the world, he has performed well across all three surfaces. He had a stellar start to his season, reaching the final at the Qatar Open, and then he went on to defeat Holger Rune in the final of the Indian Wells Masters by 6-2, 6-2 to clinch his first title of the season. Following that, the British tennis star made it to the final of the Madrid Open, where he was defeated by Casper Ruud in three sets. His most remarkable run on grass came at the HSBC Championships, where he reached the semis.

But, despite these impressive runs, things aren’t looking pretty for the Brit at the moment! He has already announced that he will not play again this season because of the arm injury that forced his withdrawal from the US Open. This news means Draper will not be able to fulfill this season’s goal of qualifying for the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin in November for the first time. Not only that, but he’ll probably also lose his place in the world’s Top 10 by the end of this season. Pretty unfortunate for the British tennis star!

2.  Félix Auger-Aliassime

The 25-year-old Canadian tennis star has been one of the in-form players this season. He has a win-loss record of 34-19 and has already won 2 titles (Adelaide International, Open Occitane) this season. Other than that, he has also reached the final at the Dubai Tennis Championships, and recently, he also made it to the semis at the US Open.

As a result of his incredible performance in NY, he gained 790 ATP points, which not only took him 14 places up the rankings, but also he is now 10th in the ‘Race to Turin,’ the annual battle for a place in the ATP Finals. His place is not yet confirmed in the Top 8 of that list, but the good thing for him is that there is just a 1000-point gap between him and American tennis star Ben Shelton.

Both Shelton and Draper have been nursing an injury currently, so this opens the door momentarily for the Canadian, but still, he needs to keep his momentum intact to secure a spot for the ATP Finals. Nothing is confirmed as of now for this in-form Canadian.

3. Grigor Dimitrov

The former world number 3 has had a mixed season so far. Despite reaching two semifinals this season (Brisbane International and Miami Open), Grigor Dimitrov is titleless this season. He couldn’t go past the first round at the AO and the French Open this year. Although Dimitrov made a promising run at Wimbledon, where he even got a 6-3, 7-5, 2-2 lead in the R16 match against the ultimate champion Jannik Sinner, he had to end the match abruptly.

The Bulgarian suffered a pectoral injury against Sinner at Wimbledon, and hence, he was forced to withdraw from the match. Currently ranked 28th in the world, Dimitrov has no chances of making it to the ATP Finals this year, and this is pretty sad for all the tennis fans. He had won this title in 2017.

4. Stefanos Tsitsipas

The 2019 champion, Stefanos Tsitsipas, is also out of contention to make it to this year’s ATP Finals in Turin. He is currently ranked 27th in the world, and his form has been absolutely horrible this season. The Greek has played 40 matches this season, and out of those, he has managed to win just 22.

He was recently knocked out of the US Open by Germany’s Daniel Altmaier in the second round by a five-set thriller. Tough times for the Greek tennis heartthrob!

5. Daniil Medvedev

The 2021 US Open champion and the former world number one, Daniil Medvedev, is also currently far away from securing his spot inside the Top 8.

Ranked 18th in the world, Medvedev surprisingly had a season that he’d like to forget as soon as he can. With a 26-18 win-loss record, the 2020 ATP Finals champion has looked far from his best at the majors, and this poor run has definitely impacted a lot in his rankings.

Other than these five, there are also a few other names like Casper Ruud, Tommy Paul, Holger Rune, Alexander Bublik, Karen Khachanov, and Andrey Rublev who could also miss out on the chance of playing at this iconic tennis event this year. But on the other hand, we could see two debutants in Turin this year with the likes of Shelton and Musetti. How excited are you for this year’s ATP Finals?

Written by

Sayantan Roy

Sayantan Roy is a seasoned tennis journalist at EssentiallySports. He brings a deep tactical understanding to his coverage, breaking down head-to-head records, match dynamics, and on-court strategies with precision. For more than two years, Sayantan has been a key member of the Live Events desk, delivering real-time insights and data-backed predictions for the platform’s Matchday Preview section. His analytical approach has sparked editorial debates and drawn recognition from respected tennis voices, including commentator and analyst Olly_Tennis. Combining his experience in writing with a passion for insightful sports journalism, Sayantan’s work serves as a trusted reference point for tennis fans around the world.

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Edited by

Shrabana Sengupta