Sinner and Alcaraz headline the ATP Finals with Djokovic out

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are poised to add another entry into their rapidly developing rivalry when the ATP Finals open Sunday without any members of the Big Three for the first time in nearly a quarter century.

The top-ranked Sinner and No. 3 Alcaraz evenly split the year’s Grand Slam titles between them with two apiece and it would be fitting if the pair meet again in Turin.

And since Alcaraz was overtaken by Alexander Zverev in the rankings this week, the Spaniard could be placed in the same round-robin group as Sinner.

The draw for the eight-man event is scheduled for later Thursday.

After the round-robin stage, the top two finishers in each group advance to the semifinals.

The other qualifiers are: Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud, Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev.

The big name missing is that of defending champion Novak Djokovic, who withdrew on Tuesday due to an unspecified injury.

Not since 2001 has the finals been held without at least one of Djokovic, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal. This season also was the first since 2002 without at least one Grand Slam title for a member of that trio.

Djokovic has won the ATP Finals a record seven times. He beat Sinner for the title last year.

Federer, who announced his retirement in 2022, won the event six times after making his debut in 2002; Nadal, who is retiring after playing in the Davis Cup the week after finals, was the runner-up twice at the finals but never won it.

Sinner withdrew from last week’s Paris Masters due to a virus and showed up early in Turin for training.

“This is for me the main event of the end of the year,” Sinner said.

As an Italian, Sinner will be the main focus of attention in Turin.

It’s the first time that Sinner will be playing at home since it was announced before his U.S. Open title that he had tested positive in two separate drug tests earlier in the year.

A decision to clear Sinner of wrongdoing was appealed by the World Anti-Doping Agency in September and the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport is expected to make a final ruling on the case early next year.

Sinner opened this year by winning the Australian Open to become the first Italian man to win a Grand Slam singles title in nearly a half-century — since Adriano Panatta raised the French Open trophy in 1976.

Alcaraz then claimed the French Open and Wimbledon titles to raise his career total to four Grand Slams.

Sinner responded by winning the U.S. Open.

Alcaraz won all three official meetings with Sinner this year and holds a 6-4 advantage in their career head-to-head rivalry. Last month, Sinner beat Alcaraz in the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Saudi Arabia.

The only two players in the field to have won the finals are Zverev and Medvedev.

Zverev won in London in 2018 and in Turin in 2021; while Medvedev triumphed in 2020 — the final year the event was held in London.

Zverev enters in solid form coming off a title at the Paris Masters.

Fritz is looking to add another big result after his maiden Grand Slam final at the U.S. Open; Ruud was a finalist in 2022; De Minaur is making his tournament debut; and Rublev is making his fifth straight appearance.

If a player wins all five of his matches en route to the trophy, he will earn $4.8 million — the largest winner’s prize on the men’s tour.

That’s significantly more than what Sinner and Alcaraz earned for their victories at the U.S. Open ($3.6 million) and Wimbledon (2.7 million pounds or $3.45 million) this year.

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Russia's Andrey Rublev returns a ball to Ben Shelton of the U.S. during their quarter final match at the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (Georgios Kefalas/Keystone via AP)

Alex de Minaur, of Australia, celebrates winning a point to Denmark's Holger Rune during their quarterfinal match of the Paris Masters tennis tournament at the Accor Arena, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Russia's Daniil Medvedev throws his racket as he plays Alexei Popyrin, of Australia, during their second round match of the Paris Masters tennis tournament, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Germany's Alexander Zverev returns to France's Ugo Humbert during the final of the Paris Masters tennis tournament at the Accor Arena on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Spain's Carlos Alcaraz backhands to France's Ugo Humbert during their third round match of the Paris Masters tennis tournament at the Accor Arena, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Spain's Carlos Alcaraz reacts as he plays France's Ugo Humbert in a third round match at the Paris Masters tennis tournament at the Accor Arena, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Soldiers in a Ukrainian artillery battery on the front lines in the country’s east were only vaguely aware Wednesday of American election results pointing to Donald Trump’s victory. But they were firm in their hopes for the next president of the United States.

Their entrenched artillery battery fires on Russian forces daily — and takes fire nearly as often. Just the other day, one of their overhead nets snared a Russian drone.

“I hope that the quantity of weapons, the quantity of guns for our victory will increase,” the unit's 39-year-old commander, who goes by the name Mozart, said in the hours before Trump’s win was confirmed. “We don't care who the president is, as long as they don't cut us off from help, because we need it.”

The soldiers, who use their Starlink connection to the internet sparingly, learned of the U.S. election results from Associated Press journalists.

Trump's election throws into doubt American support for Ukraine — and ultimately whether Kyiv can beat back Russia's invasion. But Mozart — who like other soldiers Wednesday did not give his name in keeping with Ukrainian military protocol — is among many Ukrainians who hope that Trump will hold the line on American support for their country. Russian forces have recently made gains in the east, although the commander described the front-line situation as “static.”

Yurii Fedorenko, commander of a Ukrainian drone unit also in the Kharkiv region, wears an American flag patch on his uniform. He is keenly aware of how critical American support has been for Ukraine.

“Suppose I were told that there was some country across the ocean that I didn’t even know where it was, and that I had to pay money from my taxes to this country so that it could exist," said Fedorenko, whose call-sign is Achilles — the same name as his battalion. “I don’t know how I would react. Therefore, I really thank the Americans and I really believe that they have a good education system, because the vast majority of people understand why the United States helps third countries, and in particular now Ukraine.”

It was under Trump that the United States first sent weapons to Ukraine in its fight against Russia, in 2017. Those Javelin anti-tank missiles were crucial to Ukraine's ability to fend off the full-scale invasion in 2022. But Trump overall is wary of U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts.

Trump, who has touted his good relationship with President Vladimir Putin and called the Russian leader “pretty smart” for invading Ukraine, has repeatedly criticized American backing of Ukraine. He characterized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “the greatest salesman on Earth” for winning U.S. aid.

Zelenskyy was among the first world leaders to publicly congratulate Trump, and said the two discussed how to end “Russian aggression against Ukraine” when they met in September.

“I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs. This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer. I am hopeful that we will put it into action together,” he wrote on the social platform X.

Zelenskyy later wrote that he had spoken to Trump and congratulated him on “his historic landslide victory — his tremendous campaign made this result possible. I praised his family and team for their great work. We agreed to maintain close dialogue and advance our cooperation.”

Trump has said repeatedly he would have a peace deal done between Ukraine and Russia within a day if elected, although he has not said how. During his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, he twice refused to directly answer a question about whether he wanted Ukraine to win — raising concerns that Kyiv would be forced to accept unfavorable terms in any negotiations he oversaw.

In Kyiv, which comes under attack from Russian drones near daily, 18-year-old Viktoriia Zubrytska was pragmatic about her expectations for the next American president. She thinks Ukraine will be forced to give up territory in exchange for peace under a Trump presidency. But she said she preferred that to what she called the false hope that the Biden administration offered.

“We will live in a world of facts where we will be certain what awaits us,” said the law student. “Certainty and objective truth is much better than lies and life in illusions.”

According to VoteCast, 74% of voters who supported Harris favored continuing aid to Ukraine, while only 36% of Trump’s voters did. AP VoteCast is a survey of the American electorate conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago.

On the front lines in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region, Andriy, who goes by “Rodych” or “Relative,” said Ukraine would "come up with something" no matter what happened in the U.S. vote.

“We are a shield between Europe and Russia,” he added. “Other countries do not understand what is happening here, they see it on TV and for them it is far away.”

America's NATO allies were closely watching the election. France and Germany arranged a last-minute, top-level defense meeting Wednesday in Paris to discuss the results, and Ukraine is likely to be central to the meeting. The two leading powers in the European Union provide significant support to Ukraine to defend it against Russia’s war.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, citing a “more aggressive Russia,” also invoked Trump's motto of “peace through strength.”

Rutte praised Trump for his work during his first term to persuade countries in the alliance to ramp up defense spending.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had no information on whether Putin plans to congratulate Trump, but he emphasized that Moscow views the U.S. as an “unfriendly” country. Peskov reaffirmed the Kremlin’s claim that U.S. support for Ukraine amounted to involvement in the conflict, telling reporters: “Let’s not forget that we are talking about the unfriendly country that is both directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state.”

Still, he noted Trump's promise to end the war swiftly once elected.

“The U.S. can help end the conflict,” Peskov said, adding that “it certainly can’t be done overnight."

In a rare agreement with the Kremlin, Fiona Hill, a former intelligence expert in the George W. Bush, Obama and Trump administrations, said it was increasingly clear that Europe had to step up its capacities.

“If Trump is saying, I’m going to sit down and resolve this in 24 hours, it’s highly unlikely that’s going to be the case,” Hill said in a podcast with the European Council on Foreign Relations a few days ahead of the election. “You can say the United States is going to stop supplying weapons, and you can hold everything out for leverage, but it’s not for the United States to do at this particular point. Because there are already other Europeans in the game in terms of assistance to the Ukraine.”

Konovalov reported from the Kharkiv region. Associated Press journalists Lorne Cook in Brussels; Hanna Arhirova, Illia Novikov and Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine; Danica Kirka in London; Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

A serviceman, known by the call sign Yaga, of the 13th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine looks on at his position on the front line near Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

A serviceman of the 13th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine prepares to fire a Giatsint-B gun towards Russian positions near Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

A serviceman of the 13th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine prepares to fire a Giatsint-B gun towards Russian positions near Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

A serviceman of the 13th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine fires a Giatsint-B gun towards Russian positions near Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

A serviceman of the 13th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine fires Giatsint-B gun towards Russian positions near Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump departs as son Barron Trump, left, and former first lady Melania Trump look on at an election night watch party, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

FILE - Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, right, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake hands during their meeting at Trump Tower, on Sept. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)