Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
The ATP Finals is a big tennis event. It happens every year in November. Only the eight best men of the year can enter. This year it is in Turin, a city in Italy.
The first matches are on Sunday, 15 November. But one star is missing. Jannik Sinner from Italy won the event last year and the year before. Now his knee is hurt, and he cannot come.
Alexander Zverev from Germany is the new number one in the world. He is 29 years old. He won this event two times before, in 2018 and in 2021.
Carlos Alcaraz from Spain is number two in the event. He is 23, and he has never won it. Many fans think he can win this time.
- tennis
- A sport in which you hit a ball over a net with a racket.
- event
- Something important that happens, such as a sports competition.
- enter
- To take part in a competition.
- matches
- Games between two people or teams.
- missing
- Not there.
- knee
- The middle part of your leg, where it bends.
- hurt
- Injured or in pain.
- fans
- People who like a sport or a star very much.
Level 2 — Elementary
The last big tournament of the men's tennis year starts in Turin on Sunday, 15 November. The ATP Finals invites only the eight men who earned the most ranking points during the season, and this year the list looks very different.
The biggest change is that the champion is absent. Jannik Sinner, who won the title in front of his home crowd in both 2024 and 2025, ended his season on 6 October because of an injury to his right knee.
Without Sinner, Alexander Zverev of Germany became world number one on 2 November. He is only the second German man to reach the top, after Boris Becker. Zverev will be the first seed in Turin, and Carlos Alcaraz of Spain will be the second. The American Ben Shelton and Daniil Medvedev are seeded third and fourth.
Half of the field is new to the event. Flavio Cobolli of Italy, Arthur Fils of France, Frances Tiafoe of the United States and the young Spaniard Rafael Jodar have all qualified for the first time. The draw on Thursday will divide the eight men into two groups of four.
- tournament
- A competition with many matches and one winner at the end.
- ranking
- A list that shows who is best, second best and so on.
- season
- The part of the year when a sport is active.
- champion
- The winner of a competition.
- absent
- Not present.
- injury
- Damage to a part of the body.
- seed
- A top competitor who is given a protected place in the draw.
- qualified
- Earned the right to take part.
Level 3 — Intermediate
For the first time since 2023, the ATP Finals will crown a champion who is not Jannik Sinner. The Italian, winner of the past two editions in Turin, shut down his season on 6 October with a right knee injury, and his absence has reshaped both the rankings and the tournament that opens at the Inalpi Arena on Sunday, 15 November.
The chief beneficiary is Alexander Zverev. The 29-year-old German took over as world number one on 2 November, becoming the 30th man to hold the position and the second from his country after Boris Becker. He arrives as top seed for the first time and as a two-time former champion, having lifted the trophy in 2018 and 2021. Asked by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera whether he still had doubters to answer, he replied: 'I don't think I have much else to prove.'
Carlos Alcaraz, seeded second, may disagree about who is favourite, though he has publicly brushed off the label himself. The 23-year-old Spaniard has never won the season finale, but he comes in with momentum from recent indoor titles. Ben Shelton and Daniil Medvedev complete the top four seeds.
The rest of the line-up signals a generational shift. Flavio Cobolli, Arthur Fils, Frances Tiafoe and Rafael Jodar are all making their debuts, which means half the field has never contested the event. Thursday's draw will sort the eight into two round-robin groups, with Zverev and Alcaraz certain to be kept apart. The best two from each group advance to the semi-finals.
- crown
- To officially name someone as the winner.
- editions
- Single occasions of an event that is held regularly.
- reshaped
- Changed the form or structure of something.
- beneficiary
- A person who gains from something.
- doubters
- People who do not believe that someone can succeed.
- momentum
- The energy gained from a series of successes.
- generational
- Relating to a group of people of about the same age.
- round-robin
- A format in which each competitor meets all the others in a group.
Level 4 — Advanced
A tournament that for two autumns belonged to Jannik Sinner will, from Sunday, 15 November, have to find a new protagonist. The Italian's right knee brought his season to a premature close on 6 October, depriving Turin of its local hero and its defending champion in a single stroke, and leaving the ATP Finals more open than at any point since the event moved to the city.
The vacuum has been filled, on paper at least, by Alexander Zverev. On 2 November the German ascended to the top of the rankings, the 30th man to do so and the first from his country since Boris Becker, and at 29 one of the oldest to get there for the first time. Sceptics note that the summit became reachable only once Sinner stopped accumulating points; admirers counter that durability across a gruelling calendar is itself a skill. Zverev, champion here in 2018 and 2021, sounded untroubled in an interview with Corriere della Sera. 'I don't think I have much else to prove,' he said.
The bookmakers' gaze nonetheless drifts toward the second seed. Carlos Alcaraz, 23, has collected nearly everything the sport offers except this title, and he reaches Italy on the back of a productive indoor swing. He has waved away talk of favouritism with practised modesty. Ben Shelton and Daniil Medvedev, seeded third and fourth, are the likeliest to disrupt a Zverev and Alcaraz final.
Equally striking is the influx of novices. Flavio Cobolli, who inherits the home crowd's affection, Arthur Fils, Frances Tiafoe and the young Spaniard Rafael Jodar are all first-time qualifiers, so that half the draw will be learning the peculiar rhythms of the round-robin format, in which a defeat need not be fatal, as they go. The groups are to be drawn on Thursday, 12 November. Whoever prevails a week later will do so with an asterisk in some eyes and none at all in the record books.
- protagonist
- The main figure in a story or event.
- premature
- Happening before the expected time.
- vacuum
- An empty space left when someone or something is gone.
- ascended
- Rose to a higher position.
- gruelling
- Extremely tiring and demanding.
- favouritism
- The state of being expected to win.
- influx
- The arrival of a large number of people or things.
- asterisk
- A mark suggesting that a result comes with a special note or doubt.
Talk about this article with KatePractice this story's vocabulary in a real spoken conversation with your AI tutor