As the ATP Finals Kick Off, Tennis’s Best Players Tell Us About Their Year—On and Off the Court

The capstone to the 2024 men’s pro tennis tour—the Nitto ATP Finals tournament—starts today in Turin, Italy, featuring the eight most-highly ranked players in the world (well, mostly: Novak Djokovic elected to sit this one out due to injury). In advance of the opening match, we asked these players—in order of current ranking: Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur, and Andrey Rublev—to look back on the year (both on and off the court) and forward to the next.

Vogue: What’s been your highlight of 2024 on the court—and why?

Taylor Fritz: Making the US Open finals—a home slam, my best slam result. That moment of winning my semifinal match and knowing I’d made the finals—and just walking out to play in the finals: That’s for sure the best.

Jannik Sinner: My first big title, in Australia, my first Grand Slam. Why? Because… because I won.

Carlos Alcaraz: Roland Garros [aka the French Open]. In months before the tournament, I got injured and couldn’t practice as much as I wanted, and I went into Roland Garros without any expectations—and ended up winning it (and with really good matches). It’s a real highlight.

Daniil Medvedev: The Australian Open. I probably… should have is not the right thing to say, because I did win this match, but I could have lost the second round. I could have lost the quarterfinal. I could have lost the semifinal, but I managed to be in the final, and actually was really close to winning it. Amazing memories—the highlight of a long, long season.

Alex de Minaur: Cracking into the top ten in Sydney in front of friends and family, on my favorite court, was a very special moment.

Casper Ruud: Winning Barcelona—it’s the biggest title that I’ve ever won, and a pretty historic tournament: You’re playing on Pista Rafa Nadal, which is quite incredible—to have a court named after him—and yeah, it’s a big trophy. It was really cool to be able to lift it.

Andrey Rublev: Madrid—not only because I won the title, but just the conditions and the challenges of those two weeks [Rublev battled both a foot inflammation and a strange virus that left him with headaches, a fever, and insomnia, and for a while subsisted on baby food during the tournament]. Somehow, those challenges gave me a better mindset that allowed me to play more free—they unblocked some things.