PREVIEW | 2023 ATP FINALS as Novak DJOKOVIC and Carlos ALCARAZ lead Turin title tilt to end season

With the draw now confirmed for the ATP Finals which are due to take place between November 12-19 in Turin, how do the eight players involved stack up? Our ATP Finals preview helps to look ahead to the end of season showpiece spectacle.

Novak Djokovic will lead the field and the Green Group. While the Red Group will be led by Carlos Alcaraz, his nearest rival to securing a record breaking seventh crown with the previous mark held by Roger Federer.

But like its WTA counterpart, it is a tournament known for being unpredictable including winners with many jaded from playing all season. So it could still be anyone's.

At the grand old age of 37, Novak Djokovic continues to defy belief by still being the top player in the sport by some distance and barring losing at Wimbledon to Carlos Alcaraz, he has dominated at the Grand Slam tournaments too.

Djokovic is tied though with Carlos Alcaraz for the most tournaments won this season with the Australian Open, Roland Garros, US Open, Paris Masters and Cincinnati as well as Adelaide back in January.

As Rafael Nadal, his counterpart is heading towards retirement seemingly and one final lap around the sun in terms of his incredible career, Djokovic continues to show that while there is still winning form in him, there is still life yet.

His schedule has meant as well that more often than not when he has turned up to play, he has won. It is a tournament also that he places great importance on. But there is some light for other players.

He has only won one title since 2016 in the event and that was last year when he beat Casper Ruud. It has never been a big happy hunting ground with two semi-finals and even losing in the Round Robin in 2019.

"Every match is going to be like finals of a big tournament, because you play a top-eight player," he said as per ATP. "Every match carries a lot of [ATP Rankings] points, carries a lot of importance.

"It's a group-stage format, which we don't get to experience in any other tournament, so even if you lose a match or even two, in a round-robin system you can still go through semis. I had the perfect score in Torino last year, five [wins] out of five matches. I like playing there. I think I connect well with the Italian crowd. I'm going there with good feelings, with a lot of confidence. I haven't lost a match since the Wimbledon final, so I'm really excited to hopefully finish off the season on a high."

But while Djokovic will think it is his to lose, two players in particular will have other ideas in his next two ranking counterparts.

Carlos Alcaraz who was the last player to beat him back at Wimbledon will have designs on some revenge as he has had the hoodoo against him again including in Cincinnati. They also won't meet until the latter stages with the Spaniard in a group with his nearest rival.

That being Daniil Medvedev with Jannik Sinner the closest in ranking terms to Djokovic. Alcaraz has been in horrific form as of late though as he has hit a wall chasing the Year End No.1.

Early losses in Paris, Shanghai and to Sinner in Beijing after the US Open, it has not been the Alcaraz that was World No.1 up until recently. But he has never played this tournament.

Previously a proponent of the Next Gen Finals due to only being 20, he graduates up to the main event and will be the favourite alongside Djokovic, but if he falters like he did in Paris, Daniil Medvedev could be there to scoop up.

Despite an early loss in Paris, Medvedev has perhaps been best of the rest losing to Sinner in the final in Vienna and also Beijing and of course to Djokovic at Flushing Meadows. A previous winner of this tournament too so he knows what it takes to win.

As do two players who have pounced previously in Alexander Zverev who only just qualified for this tournament and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Zverev has won it twice in 2018 and 2021 defeating Djokovic and Medvedev in his two finals and perhaps despite being a different player from what he was back then, he has shown some glimmers of a return to his best ranking wise.

As has Tsitsipas who after a period in the tennis doldrums has risen like a phoenix into multiple semi-finals in the last few weeks and himself qualified for the ATP Finals in Paris looking superb in the process.

Other spoilers include Andrey Rublev who has also been in superb form as has Jannik Sinner and a resurgent Holger Rune with the guidance of a certain Boris Becker who will again do battle with his old charge, Novak Djokovic in the group stage.

A traditional season ender and despite the narrow gap until the next journey around the ATP Calendar, it will add the finishing touches to a great year of tennis.