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.

Alexander Zverev: Winning Rome, after coming back from a big injury. I didn’t know whether I was ever going to be back at this level, and winning a Masters proved it to me.

Jannik Sinner: Seeing my parents after Australia—just seeing them happy and spending some time with them. I don’t have so much time with my parents, so it was a very nice moment.

Alexander Zverev: We played so much this year—every week, obviously, there’s a tournament—that I didn’t have that many off-court moments, to be honest. Oh, wait—the afterparty after Laver Cup in Berlin: That was the funniest evening I’ve had all year.

Daniil Medvedev: On my birthday, my friends surprised me by gathering together in a restaurant—but they made it happen that I arrived there a little bit by accident, and among this group there were different friends, some of whom didn’t know each other. And so I walk in the restaurant thinking we’re just going to be two or three people—and there’s this big table there with a lot of my friends, and I see them one by one, and I get so confused—I’m thinking, like, “Wow—what a coincidence he’s there today.” Then I see another friend at this table, and I didn’t think these two guys knew each other, so I’m like, “Wow—what a coincidence! How do these two guys know each other?” And then when I see the third and fourth friends, I’m finally like, “Oh—okay.” I felt so stupid—it was so awkward and so embarrassing. But that was a highlight of the year for me—of course

Alex de Minaur: Purchasing my second vintage MINI [car], because it’s what makes me happier than anything: Driving classic MINIS. (The new one is blue, and the other one is green—British Army Green.)

Casper Ruud: I went to Paris for the Vogue World show, which was incredible—this cool celebration of sports, with so many good performances and a really, really cool setup at the Place Vendôme.

Andrey Rublev: The foundation that we were able to launch this year. [The Andrey Rublev Foundation supports children around the world struggling with critical illnesses.]

Alex de Minaur: Katie inspires me. A while back, she helped me to have a different perspective on my life—to not base everything I do on results, and to learn to enjoy the process and the work behind the scenes a lot more.

Casper Ruud: The Opening Ceremony of the Olympics with Celine Dion singing in the Eiffel Tower was quite inspiring to watch—I think she’s an incredible artist with an incredible voice. But the Opening Ceremony in general was incredible—it was really fun to be part of it.

Andrey Rublev: There are so many—the artists who inspired me while I was junior, in particular, really affected the way I grew. This year, though—there is someone who’s had an impact on me, but I’m not going to say who it is. Why? Because it’s a secret that has helped me.