Stefanos Tsitsipas has claimed that the
ATP Finals are more important than the Grand Slams as he prepares to make a run for a second title at the season-ending championship.
The 2023 Nitto ATP Finals will be held at the Pala Alpitour in Turin from November 12-19, where the Top 8 players of the season will battle it out amongst each other. Along with World No. 6 Tsitsipas, the qualifiers for this year's event are Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Jannik Sinner, Andrey Rublev, Alexander Zverev, and Holger Rune.
This is the Greek player's fifth consecutive appearance at the ATP Finals, which he secured after he reached the semi-finals of the Paris Masters last week. Tsitsipas has experienced some incredible highs and major lows throughout the season, making it to the final of the Australian Open and winning an ATP 250 title in Los Cabos before suffering a string of early exits over the summer and autumn, including a second-round defeat at the US Open.
Tsitsipas opens up on importance of ATP Finals
However, the 25-year-old was able to improve his results again toward the end of the season to secure his place in Turin. Once there, he will be hoping to win his second ATP Finals title, after he won the tournament for the first time in 2019 when it was held in London.
Moreover, Tsitsipas made it clear that he is not downplaying the significance of the prestigious event, and even suggested that he places more importance on it than any other tournament on the ATP calendar. This is because it gathers together "the best of the best" from the season, meaning it is more of a challenge because there are no matches against lower-ranked players to help build up momentum.
"It’s a whole celebration. The ATP Finals is a commemoration and celebration of the best of the best in our sport," he said, "We all gather together and we get to play against each other and focus on the fact that we are the best in the world trying to fight for this mega trophy, which is a grand prize in our sport. It means a lot. I would consider it probably a bigger thing than a Slam, honestly. It has big prestige and it’s a very valuable asset if you’re able to conquer and win it."
This is in contrast to Coco Gauff's recent comments about the WTA Finals. The 19-year-old was defeated in the semi-finals of the 2023 edition, which was held in Cancun last week. She then went on to say that while it would be a "dream" to win the event one day, she would still prefer to win a Grand Slam if she had to choose one or the other.
