PODCAST - 2023 Nitto ATP Finals Preview

NOVAK DJOKOVIC ON BEING WORLD NUMBER ONE - ‘If you’re aiming to be top five, top ten, top fifteen in the world and want to reach a certain level of consistency and that’s your goal, that’s fine but it’s completely different story if that’s your goal and that’s all that interests you and I was never interested in being anything other than number one’.

MARCA TENNIS EDITOR JOAN SOLSONA ON HOW YOU CAN COMPARE CARLOS ALCARAZ TO RAFAEL NADAL - ‘In terms of style of game they are totally different, but of course Alcaraz is only twenty and when Nadal was twenty, he had two or three Grand Slams, so we can compare it in that way. Both of them start winning at a very young age, but you know, Alcaraz sees Nadal no as a rival, but a an idol’.

JANNIK SINNER ON PLAYING IN FRONT OF A HOME CROWN IN TURIN - ‘For sure the crowd is behind me and obviously I will try my best to make them happy and win as many matches as possible, but in a way I have to enjoy the moment, it’s going to be a good moment for me and hopefully it’s going to be a good tournament’.

DANIIL MEDVEDEV ON THE NITTO ATP FINALS BEING A ROUND ROBIN EVENT - ‘You play against the best players in the world, so sure it’s going to be tough for you. The round robin changes, if you lose a match, you get another chance, but when you go into the tournament it's to try to not lose this match’.

ANDREY RUBLEV ON HOW HE’D LIKE TO PLAY BEST OF FIVE SETS AT THE TOUR FINALS - ’There you don’t play that many matches, in total only five matches and if they have like in the Slams one day play, one day not play, best of three sets, I don’t know, best of five I like the feeling, or at least the final’. 

ALEXANDER ZVEREV ON MAKING IT TO TURIN AFTER INJURY - ‘In the beginning I was nowhere near making Turin, I was just thinking about how to win matches and it kind of turned around in the summer for me and from then on it was kind of fun to play tennis matches again’.

HOLGER RUNE ON THE BIGGEST LESSON HE’S LEARNT THIS YEAR - ’Stability in life. To have a team that is there for the right reason and that they are there for you. I feel it is important as a player that you have the people around you that you feel you can always learn from and you respect them one hundred per cent’.

STEFANOS TSITSIPAS ON GIVING A PEP TALK TO A YOUNGER STEFANOS - ’This is going to be a long difficult, but enjoyable journey. Try to love the game as much as you can, just think positively, don’t let negativity drown you and stay on your feet, even if you get punched’.

RAJEEV RAM AND JOE SALISBURY ON THIER INDIFFERENT YEAR - ‘It’s tough to say it’s not a good year when you win a Grand lam, but overall we’ve not been happy with how a lot of it has gone and had we not won the US Open then it would have been a very poor year by our standards’.

SANTIAGO GONZALEZ ON PLAYING ELITE TENNIS AT THE AGE OF FORTY - ‘If you’d have asked me the question two year ago I would have said that forty is a good year to quit but now I’m playing my best tennis, I’m healthy, I have no injuries, I’m enjoying travelling, I’m enjoying playing, I’m enjoying competing, so I would say I have another two or three years at least’. 

GUSTAVO KUERTEN ON WHAT IT’S LIKE TO END THE YEAR AS WORLD NUMBER ONE - ‘It was for sure the best achievement for me as a human being. The passion, the love, the emotion, going to my mother to give her back the hug that brought us the number one sport in the world’.

- Presented by Seb Lauzier

- Interviews by Chris Bowers, Candy Reid, Jill Craybas and Ursin Caderas

- Djokovic, Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Sinner and Gustavo Kuerten features by ATP Uncovered