The long tennis season ushered in the final chapter in November, and as the final chapter of the annual tournament, the year-end finals are a contest between the masters and the year-end dividends, which is a visual feast for the fans of tennis. The year-end finals of at-the-time ATP and WTA have come to an end, but the highlights and stories after the game are still talked about.
1. The place where the event is held
This year, the at-time location of ATP and WTA has changed, the ATP's contract with London expired, no longer played in the O2 Stadium, moved to Turin, Italy, and the Milan New Forces Finals that have emerged in recent years are also in Italy, and Italy has become the focus of the end of the season. The warm and humid Mediterranean climate of southern Europe should be more conducive to the development of the game than the cold and humid temperate oceanic climate of Britain. WTA signed a ten-year-long license with Shenzhen in 2019, and with the full support of sponsors such as Shiseido, the singles championship prize money is even greater than that of the Grand Slam champion. However, due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic and the constraints of domestic epidemic prevention policies, the 2020 competition was cancelled, and the year-end of 2021 was temporarily moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, for a temporary year. This is also the year-end finals after Los Angeles to come to the American continent again, and it is also the first time to land in Latin America.
2. Participants
At the end of each season, the top players will work hard to qualify for the year-end finals. This added starlight and suspense to the end-of-season tour, especially the participation of players in 6-12 players in Law mode to open up the points battle. In the men's singles, rublev, Rude, Beretini, Hulkach, Sina and Norrie, who have close points, have frequently participated in the seats. Four of the six are playing for the first time at the end of the year, and The home battle between Berrettini and Sina added a point of view to the Italian audience. In the women's singles, Svatek, Badosa, Muguruza, Kontavet, Abbabal and Pavlyuchenkova, who are relatively behind in points, all theoretically had a chance to compete, until Kontawirt finalized the 8th place at the last minute, and the list of entries was announced belatedly.
3. Withdrawal trend
Nadal was overtaken by Sinar to 9th place in this season's championship standings, missing a place in the year-end finals for the first time in nearly 17 years, and although Nadal has already announced the season reimbursement in advance, the record of 16 consecutive years (2005-2021) in the year-end finals was not confirmed until November. Still, the last two seats were fiercely contested, with Ruud and Hulkach finally locking up tickets after the Paris Masters, especially when Master Hu squeezed Out Sina to make the Italian rising star the first substitute. On the WTA side, the world's number one Batty, who leads the standings, announced his withdrawal from the year-end finals because of epidemic prevention measures, thus directly guaranteeing Swatek and Muguruza to qualify, and the determination of substitute candidates is also a twist and turn, Naomi Osaka is busy with psychological construction and does not participate, Abdul-Jabbar and Kontavet also finally withdrew from the competition, this year's French Open runner-up Pavlyuchenkova also announced his retirement, and the last two substitutes were more difficult to produce than the main qualification.
4. Grouping
ATP is not alarmed by the suspense of WTA, THE participants are 1+7 old belt new model, and the final group is a combination of 2+2 first echelon and second echelon. The grouping of the WTA is relatively interesting, with two Spaniards, Badosa and Muguruza, in different groups, while the two Czech girls, Kregitkova and Ka Pliskova, are in the same group. Swatak and Muguruza are behind the other three in the same group, and it is no wonder that some people joke that after the two were replaced, everyone was happy.
5. Champion prediction
AtP candidates are easier to predict. Tsitsipas injured his wrist and the French Open runner-up lost the possibility of competing for the title early, so the world number one Djokovic, the defending champion Medvedev and the clay master Zverev became the best candidates. The competition of the WTA is relatively open, and objectively speaking, all eight girls have a chance. Both Sabalenka and Sakarri reached the final four twice in this year's Grand Slam competitions, Svatek, Krejickova and Muguruza are Grand Slam champions, Ka Pliskova has been in the top ten for many years, Bardoza has won the Indian Wells station, and Kontavet has reached the finals with a wave of consecutive victories.
6. Group stage progress
At the ATP group stage, the world's first Djokovic, defending champion Medvedev are all all the way to the triumph of three consecutive wins to lock in the first group out of the line, the second group is relatively difficult to give birth, the green group Tsitsipas withdrew, Nori substituted, and finally Rudd broke through, the red group Berrettini withdrew, Sina substituted, until the third round of the group stage The remaining three people theoretically still have the conditions to qualify, and finally Zverev took his fate into his own hands and defeated Hulkac to successfully advance. The WTA group stage is a hundred flowers, riding on the last train Ofbadosa, Cantawirt won two consecutive wins, advanced to the final four, two French Open champions Svatek, Kregitskova lackluster, garbage baby three consecutive defeats to end the singles trip, fortunately in the doubles to advance to the final four, the stockings started with two consecutive defeats, the second round was swept by Sakkari 6-2 6-4, the game was emotionally broken and crying, in the last game of the unrelated bardoza to end the season with a victory. Ka Pliskova and Sabalenka were once bullish before the match, but the former's 2 wins and 1 loss were subject to the win-loss relationship and the difference in the set to create the worst record for his first time in the finals and failed to advance to the final four, Sabalenka lost after the start of the match with Bardoza 4-2, 4-6 0-6 easily handed over the match, and finally decided to lose to Saakari and did not qualify. Muguruza and Sakkari's promotion was finalized in the final game, both of them took their fate into their own hands, mushrooms started after losing to the walking baby, the situation was passive, once on the verge of elimination, the last two games against the wind to successfully advance.
7. Championship attribution
The story of the ATP is very unexpected, when the audience's eyes are focused on whether Medvedev can defend his title, Djokovic's victory will equal Federer's six-year-end record, and the 2019 former tournament champion Zverev suddenly emerged, defeated Xiaode in the semi-finals, defeated Mei Zong in the final, and defeated the two who won four Grand Slams this year and won the championship. The WTA's championship is more suspenseful, the state-bursting Badosa, Cantavite has lost to the final champion Muguruza, and Mushroom, as a Venezuelan-Hispanic, is also popular with audiences from Latin America in Mexico. After her victory, the ranking soared to third place and people can't help but miss the magical moment when Li Na rushed to the third place in the world at the end of 2013.
8. Prospects for the new season
The year-end finals have come to an end, and the outlook for the new season can be glimpsed from the event:
At the ATP, Federer's hero is late, and recently announced his withdrawal from the Australian Open, perhaps the focus of fans should be from whether the old cow can break into the final in the back garden of Wimbledon to when the Swiss king announces his retirement; whether Nadal can return from injury Next year's clay season and even the French Open will be the test field; Djokovic continues to maintain the world's first week, masters champions leading the number, next year's Australian Open can defend the title will be a strategic highland to shake off the number of Grand Slam titles and lead the other two giants. But on the other hand, the era of the big four has become a thing of the past, the glory of the big three will gradually pass away, several figures in the final of the four majors this year: Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Beretini, the new generation of forces led by them is eager to try for power, May is to break the dream of the annual Grand Slam and the largest number of Grand Slams in Djokovic, with the return of Thiem's injury, I believe that next year's new generation after 90 will continue to work hard and fight for the Grand Slam, It can be safely speculated that at least one Grand Slam will go to the new generation of players next year. WTA's blossoming pattern will continue next year, it is not difficult to find that the older generation of players represented by Serena Williams is gradually declining, the Mesozoic Halep is gradually unable to complete the marriage event, and the top players such as Kvitova and Kerber are becoming more and more difficult to see on the field, and the replacement of the top group is quietly coming. In addition, this year's four major slams, year-end, crown pearl competition, super five and other important event champions have been divided, it is not difficult to speculate, next year this pattern of a hundred flowers will continue and even intensify.
To sum up, the tennis world is ushering in a wave of renewal, depending on who will seize the opportunity to become a new wave in the new year. (Source: Tennis House Author: Gangdong Great White Fish)