ATP Finals: Dates, venue, format, history and much more

The ATP Finals is traditionally the final tournament of the men's tennis season and for a fourth successive year the 2024 event will take place in the Italian city of Turin.

Other than the four Grand Slam events - the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open - the ATP Finals is regarded as the most prestigious tournament on the tennis calendar as the top eight players in the ATP singles rankings battle for the title.

Novak Djokovic made it a successful title defence in 2023 as he defeated home favourite Jannik Sinner to claim a record-setting seventh win in the campaign-closing event.

ATP Finals date

The 2024 ATP Finals are scheduled to start on Sunday 10th November and finish on Sunday 17th November.

ATP Finals venue

The ATP Finals are held at Pala Alpitour, a multi-purpose indoor arena in Turin, Italy.

The venue was built for the 2006 Winter Olympics and has hosted the ATP Finals since 2021. It will stage the event until at least 2025, following on from London's 12-year spell as host city between 2009 and 2020. 

ATP Finals how to watch

Tennis fans in the UK can watch live coverage of the ATP Finals on Amazon Prime.

ATP Finals format

The top seven singles players and doubles teams in the ATP rankings qualify automatically for the ATP Finals based on their results during the year.

The final spot can go to a player who has won a Grand Slam event during the season but who is not ranked in the top seven in the world. If nobody fits that criteria then the player ranked number eight qualifies for the ATP Finals. 

In both the singles and doubles competitions there are two groups of four, with players and teams playing three matches in a round-robin format.

The top two players or teams from each group then progress to the knockout stage with two semi-finals followed by a final to decide the winner.

ATP Finals history

The ATP Finals first took place in 1970 when it was known as the Masters Grand Prix. It was held under that name until 1989 and was rebranded as the ATP Tour World Championships in 1990.

From 2000 to 2008 the tournament was called the Tennis Masters Cup and when it moved to London in 2009, it was rechristened the ATP World Tour Finals.

From 2017 onwards it has been known as the ATP Finals and it is the most important indoor tournament played on the tennis calendar.

It has been played outdoors on only three occasions, in 1974 in Melbourne and in Houston in 2003 and 2004, and hard courts have been used for the vast majority of the tournament's history. 

Who has won the ATP Finals on the most occasions?

Djokovic became the most successful singles player in the history of the ATP Finals with his victory in 2023, a success that saw him move one ahead of Swiss great Roger Federer.

Djokovic lifted the trophy four years running between 2012 and 2015 and his dominance has come to the fore again with his recent victories in 2022 and 2023.

Federer claimed all six of his titles between 2003 and 2011, at a time when he was the leading force on the ATP Tour, while Ivan Lendl and Pete Sampras have won the event five times each.

Ilie Nastase was champion in four of the first six ATP Finals and John McEnroe won three singles titles, as well as a record seven doubles championships with his partner Peter Fleming.

Andy Murray is the only British winner of the singles title, triumphing in 2016, and Germany's Alexander Zverev added his name to the list of multiple champions with victories in 2018 and 2021.

Who are the favourites for the ATP Finals?

It is hard to know who will be among the eight-strong field before a ball has been served in the 2024 campaign, although current world number one Djokovic is extremely likely to be in attendance.

Djokovic already has seven ATP Finals victories to his name and will be bidding to make it three in a row at Pala Alpitour.

However, the Serb is likely to receive stiff competition from the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Sinner, the next three players in the world rankings who are there to stay.

Alcaraz, ranked number two in the world, won the 2022 US Open and claimed his first Wimbledon crown in 2023, defeating Djokovic in a memorable final.

Medvedev, meanwhile, is a former champion, having triumphed in 2020, and the 2021 US Open champion is a hard-court specialist, so these conditions play to his strengths.

Sinner, who was runner-up to Djokovic this year, is still only 22 years of age and it only looks a matter of time until the world number claims Grand Slam silverware.

Other likely contenders include two-time winner Zverev and Stefanos Tstisipas, who was crowned champion in 2019, while Holger Rune and Andrey Rublev will be hoping they can qualify against just as they did in 2023.

Hubert Hurkacz, Taylor Fritz and Casper Ruud are three players currently ranked outside the top eight who will be hoping to force themselves in the reckoning with a successful 2024.